Smotrich in talks with Moshe Feiglin about parties running together

28 August 2026, 3:24 pm

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Left: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends the Religious Zionism party primary in Jerusalem, July 26, 2026. Right: Moshe Feiglin attends a Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting in Jerusalem, August 11, 2024. (Both Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who chairs the far-right Religious Zionism party, is in “advanced talks” with Moshe Feiglin, chair of Zehut, about the two parties running together in the October elections, reports Channel 12’s Amit Segal.

The talks have been going on since “before the failure of Netanyahu’s initiative” in the last few days to pressure Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir to merge with Smotrich’s party, which is teetering on the edge of crossing the 3.25% electoral threshold.

Feiglin’s Zehut (“Identity”) party failed to cross the electoral threshold the last time it ran, in 2019, and is now polling at less than 1%.

Smotrich and Feiglin confirm they’ve held talks on a merger, but decline to comment further on the report.