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Netanyahu: Religious Zionists have a home in Likud
From left to right: Otzma Yehudit leader MK Itamar Ben Gvir, opposition leader and Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, and Religious Zionism head MK Bezalel Smotrich. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu tells Channel 12 news that “Religious Zionists” have a home in his party.
“Religious Zionists have a home today in Likud. Likud is their home. The idea of a sectoral party … if somebody wants to do that [so be it], but there’s no need for it,” Netanyahu says.
The former prime minister appears to now be trying to draw support away from the far-right Religious Zionism party, an alliance he helped cobble together between Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.
Recent polls have indicated the alliance could become the third-largest party in Israel after the November elections.
