Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday welcomed the “important unification” of the Religious Zionist and Zehut parties ahead of the country’s Oct. 27 general election.
The Religious Zionist Party, led by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has been teetering on the brink of the 3.25% electoral threshold, while Zehut, led by former lawmaker Moshe Feiglin, has consistently polled below it.
“They have demonstrated national responsibility,” Netanyahu wrote in a Hebrew-language post on X, referring to Smotrich and Feiglin. “Not a single vote in the right-wing bloc must be wasted!”
Smotrich later thanked the premier for his words, tweeting in Hebrew, “[It is] time for unity and responsibility in the national camp!”
The two parties signed an agreement on Tuesday to run on a joint list.
“I am pleased to announce to you that the Religious Zionist Party, under my leadership, and the Zehut Party, under the leadership of Moshe Feiglin, have agreed to run together in a technical bloc,” Smotrich posted to X.
“At this critical moment, responsibility is required of us: to unite forces, to expand the camp, and not to allow any vote on the right to go to waste,” he said.
In a joint video statement posted to Feiglin’s X account, Smotrich said, “As far as I’m concerned, tonight’s announcement is about something much bigger than unity between two parties. Tonight’s announcement is about responsibility. Responsibility for the future of the national camp, responsibility for the future of the State of Israel, and responsibility for ensuring that not a single vote in our camp is lost.”
Feiglin quoted from a 1947 poem by Natan Alterman, “The Silver Platter,” then said that the unity of the two parties would appeal not just to the religious but to the young generation that is tired of the old leadership and understands that when there’s no one they can rely on they must bring themselves to positions of power.
Netanyahu has been urging smaller right-wing parties to unite. He warned on Aug. 24 that the right risked repeating its 1992 mistake, when fragmentation led to multiple parties failing to cross the threshold, resulting in a left-wing government rising to power.
