From the Liveblog of
Friday, August 28, 2026
‘Get over your ego’: Likud excoriates Ben Gvir for ‘burning votes’ by refusing Smotrich merger
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In a scathing statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party accuses National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, chair of far-right Otzma Yehudit, of “coronating a left-wing government” by refusing to run on a joint slate with Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism.
“In his decision to burn tens of thousands of right-wing votes and not unite with Smotrich, Ben Gvir decided today to coronate a left-wing government of Gadi Eisenkot, Avigdor Liberman, Yair Golan, and the Arab parties,” the statement declares.
If the far-right minister runs with Smotrich, he can allow the current government to maintain its “historic momentum in the settlement of Judea and Samaria,” the statement says, using Biblical terminology for the West Bank.
It goes on to list various purported achievements of the coalition, including “saving Israel from nuclear destruction by Iran” and killing various terror leaders in the wars that followed the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The government has been in office since the end of 2022.
“Or will Ben Gvir, out of political considerations, burn right-wing votes in order to coronate a left-wing government — exactly like in 1992, when we got Oslo?” it asks, referring to historic peace accords with the Palestinians that Netanyahu fiercely opposed as a politician, and Ben Gvir fought as an extremist activist.
If the anti-Netanyahu bloc forms a government instead, it will establish a Palestinian state, buckle to international pressure, weaken the IDF, close the right-wing Channel 14, and “destroy everything we’ve built,” Netanyahu’s party insists.
“They will evacuate your house, Itamar,” it says, appealing to Ben Gvir’s status as a resident of Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement near the West Bank city of Hebron.
“Ben Gvir, get over your personal ego. Show maturity and responsibility. Merge, for the sake of the right-wing — for the sake of the Land of Israel,” Likud says.
The statement is released after, this morning, Netanyahu publicly invited Ben Gvir and Smotrich to meet to discuss a merger. Otzma Yehudit responded almost immediately, saying the decision not to do so was final and “will not change under any circumstances.”
The Times of Israel Community.