Netanyahu urges Ben Gvir, Smotrich to unite as poll shows Winter’s new party surging

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday beseeched Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir and Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich to unite their far-right parties ahead of the upcoming elections, as a poll showed that the newly launched People of Israel party would win six seats in the upcoming vote and push Smotrich out of the Knesset.

Earlier, former IDF general Ofer Winter said his new People of Israel party would back only Netanyahu for prime minister. However, the proclamation did little to allay Netanyahu’s repeatedly expressed fears that multiple small right-wing  parties could fracture the bloc, lead to wasted votes, and ultimately cost them the election.

Netanyahu’s entreaties and Ben Gvir’s dismissive responses played out on social media with both issuing a series of videos and posts aimed at each other, and the voters.

In a video statement, Netanyahu warned that divisions on the right could cost the bloc the election, pointing to the 1992 election, when Yitzhak Rabin’s Labor ousted the right, as a cautionary example.

“In 1992, the right, like today, had more votes than the left, but because there were three parties, we didn’t cross the electoral threshold, we lost to the left, we got the Oslo disaster, Arafat here, Hamas here, and everything that followed was disaster after disaster,” Netanyahu said. “And so it could happen this time as well. Every time we went together, we won.”

Netanyahu acknowledged that there were “personal grievances” between Ben Gvir and Smotrich, but said they had to overcome them. “I will invite them in the coming days. We will make every effort to unite, and that is what the public expects of them, and rightly so.”

The two parties ran together in the 2022 election, in a technical merger, but split immediately afterward.

A poll published Thursday by Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister publication, projected that if they reunited, they would win eight seats; running separately, Otzma Yehudit was projected to win six while Religious Zionism failed to cross the threshold.

Ben Gvir responded in a statement, accusing Netanyahu of seeking to weaken Otzma Yehudit so he could bolt the bloc and form a centrist unity government with Gadi Eisenkot, the leading opposition figure.

“We both know the truth: you want a small Otzma Yehudit so that you can go with Eisenkot, so that you can establish a ‘broad national government,’” Ben Gvir said, positing that Smotrich should unite with Winter instead.

“Only with a strong Otzma Yehudit, and with Smotrich and Winter running together — only that way can a fully right-wing government be formed.”

Netanyahu then retorted to Ben Gvir in a social media post, warning him, “Don’t bring down the right.”

“I didn’t understand your video. You’re saying that I want a ‘weak Otzma Yehudit’ because I’m calling on you to unite with Smotrich? The opposite!” Netanyahu wrote.

“According to all the polls: A technical bloc of Ben Gvir + Smotrich = a strong party that will strengthen the right-wing bloc and not waste right-wing votes,” he said. “Smotrich is on the edge of the electoral threshold. If you don’t unite with him, we will get a left-wing government of Eisenkot with Yair Golan and the Arab parties.”

“The Land of Israel is at stake. The people of Israel are at stake. The State of Israel is at stake,” Netanyahu continued. “I can’t believe that because of personal ambitions you are willing to endanger the country. Make the right decision — the time has come for unity!”

Eisenkot has repeatedly specified that anyone who was in “a central position” on October 7 must resign.

Winter formally backs Netanyahu

Earlier Thursday, Winter said his party would recommend only Netanyahu for prime minister after the election.

“We are part of the right-wing camp. Netanyahu is the leader of the right-wing camp, and he is the only person we will recommend [for prime minister],” Winter said in a statement.

Winter’s declaration came after the Zman Yisrael poll showed his fledgling party receiving six seats. Smotrich’s Religious Zionism, which targets a similar constituency of religious, right-wing and pro-settlement voters, was projected to fall below the electoral threshold.

The poll showed Eisenkot’s Yashar as the largest party with 26 seats, followed by Netanyahu’s Likud with 22, Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad with 14 and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu with 10.

Shas received nine seats, United Torah Judaism and The Democrats eight each, the Hadash-Ta’al-Balad joint slate six, Otzma Yehudit six and Ra’am five.

In addition to Religious Zionism, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White, Yoaz Hendel and Chili Tropper’s Zionist Home and Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein’s Unity party were all projected to fall below the electoral threshold.

Therefore, the anti-Netanyahu Zionist parties in the so-called change bloc would receive 58 seats. The pro-Netanyahu bloc, including Winter’s People of Israel, would get 51 seats, still short of the 61 needed for a Knesset majority. The Hadash-Ta’al-Balad joint slate and Ra’am would hold the remaining 11 seats.

The Zman Yisrael poll surveyed 500 Israelis and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

Winter also repeated several of the policy pledges that have characterized his new party, saying: “We will not dance to anyone’s tune.” He vowed that the ultra-Orthodox would be integrated into the IDF “with or without the Haredi political operatives,” and reiterated his support for “voluntary emigration from Gaza” and what he called “decisive victory, not containment.”

Winter launched People of Israel in Jerusalem on Tuesday, presenting it as a new right-wing party that would pursue a hawkish security policy while seeking to appeal across different sectors of Israeli society. He argued that the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre showed that new figures were needed in the political system.

Winter stressed at the event that his faction was “a clear, definitive part of the right-wing camp” and said he wanted to establish as broad a right-wing government as possible. But he did not mention Netanyahu in the speech, leaving open whom his party would support for prime minister until Thursday’s declaration.

Netanyahu reacted to Winter’s launch by again warning that small right-wing parties could cost his bloc the election, saying those that failed to cross the 3.25 percent threshold would waste votes while those that succeeded could knock an existing right-wing party out of the Knesset.

Winter, who was released from the IDF in 2024 after being passed over for promotion, has long been a controversial figure. He drew criticism as commander of the Givati Brigade during the 2014 Gaza war over a letter to subordinate officers in which he described the operation in religious terms.