Bayit Yehudi crowdsources tips for improvement after election disappointments

Still licking its wounds from losing a third of its Knesset seats in this year’s election, Bayit Yehudi began the process of evaluating what went wrong.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Naftali Bennett (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Naftali Bennett
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Still licking its wounds from losing a third of its Knesset seats in this year’s election, Bayit Yehudi began the process of evaluating what went wrong, seeking to crowdsource answers from its central committee members.
In a letter obtained by The Jerusalem Post, Bayit Yehudi director-general Nir Orbach, who was the party’s 11th candidate for the Knesset, asked for central committee members’ opinions on what the party could have done differently in both Knesset and municipal elections.
“Now that the fog lifted and the election is behind us, we finished coalition negotiations and our elected officials began their work in the 20th Knesset and the government, we can take some time to look on the processes we went through,” Orbach wrote.
The Bayit Yehudi director- general said the party’s goal is to lead the country, and as such, it is working to strengthen its connection with its activists and the general public, learn lessons from the recent elections and implement them. Orbach asked Bayit Yehudi’s approximately 1,100 central committee members to email their thoughts on the matter.
Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan will update the party’s MKs on the process and its findings.
Jeremy Saltan, a central committee member, Mevaseret Zion branch director and chairman of the Bayit Yehudi Anglo Forum, said the move shows the power of the party’s grassroots.
“In Bayit Yehudi, unlike in other democratic parties, there is a strong relationship between the leadership and the central committee,” he said. “The party realizes that the best way to move forward is to listen to the municipal leaders and key activists who worked in the field during the campaign, because they know their respective public best.”