Smotrich says ‘no way’ religious right-wing parties won’t merge

Bezalel Smotrich, a senior member of the Union of Right-Wing Parties (URWP), said on Friday that there was “no way” his slate would not join forces with the New Right party, amid tense negotiation efforts.

He was denying a report by the Kan public broadcaster on Thursday evening that cited senior URWP officials as claiming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to convince the URWP alliance — an amalgamation of the Jewish Home, National Union and far-right Otzma Yehudit — to shun New Right, which is led by Ayelet Shaked.

The report said the premier had offered National Union’s Smotrich and URWP leader Rafi Peretz of the Jewish Home a series of perks to team up again with Otzma Yehudit, leaving out New Right. The two leaders would retain their current interim positions of transportation and education ministers, respectively, and would both be members of the high-level security cabinet and the forum of coalition heads, while Otzma Yehudit chief Itamar Ben Gvir would be made deputy minister or head of a committee, the report said.

But Smotrich flatly denied the authenticity of the report — which was also denied by Netanyahu — directly addressing Kan reporter Zeev Kam on twitter.

“Hello Zeev, I would be happy to know who those senior officials are,” he wrote. “I’m not senior so maybe this doesn’t count, but I’m not familiar with anything of the sort. There is no way in the world we won’t go together with New Right. That would be an irresponsible risk for the State of Israel, and I’m convinced Netanyahu and also our partners in the Jewish Home know that. The same is true of New Right, I believe.”

The remark came with a week remaining before parties must register their electoral slates ahead of September’s Knesset vote.

Shaked, who earlier this week took the reins of the New Right, has been pushing for the URWP to merge with her party for a joint Knesset run in order to avoid the factions splitting the right-wing bloc and risking one of them not clearing the electoral threshold. In April’s election, New Right fell several thousand votes short of entering the Knesset, despite polls showing it getting as many as six seats. URWP won five seats.

In a Facebook post Friday, Shaked said gaps remained between sides the sides “but they are not large” and called on Peretz and Smotrich “to make every effort” in order to seal a unity pact.

“I think this is the command of the hour and if we entrench ourselves in demands that are not in accordance with reality we’ll all lose,” she said. “Time is running out.”

On Thursday, Shaked backed off a demand that New Right be given every second slot on a united right-wing slate, urging Jewish Home and other factions to rally behind her.

“Establishing a right-wing bloc is an urgent matter, a kind of large republican party with a broad range of views to the right of Likud,” Shaked said to the press outside her home in Tel Aviv.

She added that she was also hoping to forge alliances with Otzma Yehudit and the quasi-libertarian Zehut party.

Otzma Yehudit joined the URWP for the April vote but has since said it was breaking its partnership with Jewish Home in a dispute over who should fill the five seats the URWP won.

Three polls published on Thursday evening gave New Right between nine and 11 Knesset seats, compared with just four for URWP.

Shaked has demanded that she lead the slate, but Peretz has so far refused to vacate his seat.

Peretz is reportedly under pressure from within the religious Zionist movement to give up his leadership position and let the secular Shaked lead an alliance, an arrangement he opposes as all the other member parties are national religious movements.

Peretz and Shaked held talks Tuesday about a merger and both their parties released statements the following day insisting they are committed to reaching a deal “even by the end of the day” but each accusing the other side of squandering the chances of a merger by making “unjustified demands.”