An agreement was signed by which the followers of Rav Kook, the Bayit Yehudi party, will run together on a joint list in the upcoming Knesset election with the followers of Rav Kahane, the Otzma Yehudit party. The agreement was signed on erev Shabbos.

Efforts are underway to form a single united right-wing list, which would also include the New Right party. Naftali Bennet, of the New Right, has already announced however that his party will be running independently in the election. The party leader, MK Ayelet Shaked, is still searching for her political home as she does not seem to want to continue with Bennet.

One major problem for her is that she would like to head the Bayit Yehudi party. Polls show she is the most popular candidate in the right-wing camp, but the torani wing of the party, including rabbonim like HaRav Shmuel Eliyahu and HaRav Elyakim Levanon, are opposed to having a party leader who is not Shomer Torah and Mitzvos, in this case, Shaked.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)