Bayit Yehudi party chairman, Rabbi Rafi Peretz, responds to growing criticism of his decision to team up with the Otzma Yehudit party, which many view as being right-wing extremist.
Peretz admits the decision was a difficult one for him, but he made it out of nationalistic responsibility.
In an interview with KAN Reshet Bet Radio, Rabbi Peretz explained “We are going with Otzma Yehudit to strengthen the right-wing. We are talking about 100,000 votes that would be thrown out, and this would be a lack of nationalistic responsibility.”
Regarding the criticism leveled against him for teaming with Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, Itamar Ben-Givir and Baruch Marzel, Rabbi Peretz said he is not a partner to the terms used including “Nazi”, adding “We are not from the same beis medrash, for I believe they exaggerate, I am shocked that there was a rabbi in Israel who called it ‘Nazism’. Itamar Ben-Givir says things straight and does not speak with rage. He is not talking about sabotaging the Arabs and certainly not touching innocent people”.
Rabbi Peretz added, “Bayit Yehudi has always done important things towards exhibiting nationalistic responsibility. This is why I went to the army, and this is why I established a mechina, and this is why I settled the Negev. We need a strong Bayit Yehudi to counter the left-wing unity.”
Since the finalizing of the list of candidates for Otzma Yehudit who will join Bayit Yehudi in the upcoming elections on a joint ballot, the party has received unending condemnations and attacks against their legitimacy to even participate in the elections.
On Tuesday, a representative from Yesh Atid joined the request proffered by Meretz, the Joint Arab List and the Labor party to the election committee asking them to disqualify the candidacy of two of the Otzma Yehudit candidate in the top eight of the Bayit Yehudi list, Michael Ben Ari and Itamar Ben Gvir.
Yesh Atid issued a statement as follows: “We will utilize all the tools that we have at our disposal to prevent the candidacy of Kahanists. We do not see a better way to do this than to join in the complaint and petition already submitted to the committee.”
A statement issued by Otzma Yehudit in response said: “Now everyone can see that Gantz is calling upon the representatives of terrorists who are in the Knesset, and intends to form a government with them. It won’t help him. In the upcoming Knesset, Doctor Ben Ari and Attorney Ben Gvir will be members and they will make sure that the government stays a right-wing government.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
Kvod harav – we all understand why you did it. Losing elections can have dire consequences. But some things are even worse than losing elections. You shouldn’t have done it.