Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been vocal in his call to Bayit Yehudi, Ichud Leumi and Otzma Yehudit to unite ahead of elections. He explains if they do not, they are all likely to fail to meet the minimum number of votes to enter the 21st Knesset, costing the right-wing hundreds of thousands of votes, which will lead to a left-wing coalition government.

While Bayit Yehudi and Ichud Leumi have already signed a deal to run together, they remain unwilling to include Otzma Yehudit headed by Baruch Marzel, Dr. Michael Ben-Ari and Itamar Ben-Givir, with Bayit Yehudi leader Rafi Peretz suggesting if PM Netanyahu wants them in Knesset so badly, he should include them in the Likud list.

In an interesting point of view, Emanuel Shilo, in his weekly column in BaSheva, explains that the prime minister is aware that if Bayit Yehudi teams with Otzma Yehudit, with the latter perceived as being “right-wing extremist” by many, Bayit Leumi will lose and not gain votes, votes that will migrate to Likud.

Shilo adds that Naftali Bennet of the New Right party, who is also calling on them to unite, has the same agenda, wishing to ‘delegitimize’ Bayit Yehudi to benefit Likud and New Right.

In a report released on Monday, PM Netanyahu has held telephone conversations with leaders of the right-wing parties, rabbonim and public figures, all towards ensuring an additional union in the right-wing bloc to prevent waste of votes.

The Likud party released the following statement: The Bayit Yehudi and Ichud Leumi parties must show responsibility and act without delay to unite all the forces on the right, otherwise the leftist bloc will win, Gantz will form a leftist government, and this will be a cry for generations to come.

In the interim, with the deadline for submitting party lists approaching, Thursday night at 10:00PM, talks continue between some parties, including Bayit Yehudi and Eli Yishai’s Yachad party.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)