A series of political shake-ups over the weekend has intensified pressure on Israel’s smaller parties to join forces ahead of the country’s Oct. 27 election, as several lists face a difficult choice between merging with allies or risking failure to cross the electoral threshold.
About 6.8 million Israelis are eligible to vote in the election. Parties must receive at least 3.25% of valid votes to win Knesset representation; votes cast for parties that fail to cross the threshold are discarded and not included in the distribution of Knesset seats. Parties close to the electoral threshold are facing mounting pressure to form technical alliances or merge with ideologically aligned candidates lists.
With the major political blocs remaining closely matched, the failure of even one small party to enter the Knesset could affect the distribution of seats and subsequent coalition-building.
On Sunday, Zionist Home—The Reservists co-founders MKs Chili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel said they were pursuing “separate political paths.” Tropper is reportedly in talks to join forces with Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar Party, while it remained unclear what Hendel’s next step would be.
“Faced with the complicated political reality, each of us made a personal decision,” said Tropper and Hendel.
On Saturday night, former Likud veterans Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein announced that their Unity party would not run in the election.
“Despite the many efforts we have made, the support so far for the Unity Party that I established does not provide a high probability of crossing the electoral threshold, and the possibilities of joining with other parties in the unity bloc are also not materializing,” said Erdan.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party and Moshe Feiglin’s Zehut have already announced that they will run together. Pressure is now being placed on Brig. Gen. (res.) Ofer Winter, chairman of the Am Yisrael (People of Israel) Party, to join the alliance.
Parties must submit their final Knesset candidate lists to the Central Elections Committee by 9 p.m. Tuesday, Israel time.
A separate Oct. 16 deadline governs “surplus-vote agreements”—technical pacts between two party lists that allow them to coordinate the allocation of votes left over after seats are distributed. Such agreements can improve the chances of an ideologically aligned party winning an additional Knesset seat.
