From the Liveblog of
Friday, August 28, 2026
PM ‘invites’ Smotrich, Ben Gvir to discuss running together, gets swift refusal
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been urging far-right party leaders Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir to form a joint list ahead of the October elections, publicly “invites” them to meet on Sunday — an invitation immediately rejected.
“I invite [National Security] Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and [Finance] Minister Bezalel Smotrich to a meeting on Sunday. No vote can go to waste; the parties must unite in order to save the right-wing bloc!” the prime minister says in a statement.
Almost immediately, Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party responds that it will not run on a joint list with Smotrich’s Religious Zionism, and that “this decision is final and complete, and it will not be changed under any circumstances.”
“Accordingly, there will be no talks, or meetings, or discussions on the topic, not directly, and not indirectly,” the far-right party’s statement says.
Otzma Yehudit calls on Netanyahu to instead push for one of two alternatives: Either a union of all the small right-wing parties that aren’t slated to pass the electoral threshold, or granting Smotrich, whose party is teetering on the edge of it, one of the premier’s reserved spots on his own Likud party’s slate.
Israel’s system of proportional representation requires any given party to receive at least 3.25 percent of the vote; otherwise its votes are not counted.
The Times of Israel Community.