MK Haim Amsalem’s Am Shalem party released its full electoral list on
Wednesday.
Despite the public declarations, it was noticeably lacking any
of the well-known figures who had been touted by the new party as possible
candidates.
The most glaring omission was Maj.-Gen (res.) Elazar Stern,
the former head of the IDF Manpower Directorate who Amsalem himself had
confirmed would run with Am Shalem.
At the beginning of November, Amsalem
said during an interview with Army Radio that Stern would be joining his party
and would get the No. 2 spot on the list.
Stern did not, however, appear
on the list of names sent to the press on Wednesday morning.
According to
an Am Shalem spokesman, Stern decided last week to that he would run with a
different party and not with Amsalem, but subsequently decided not to run in the
election at all.
Stern said on Wednesday afternoon that he was not
responding to any requests for comment on the issue.
The Am Shalem list
included nine names other than Amsalem’s, although the party is unlikely to win
more than three or four Knesset seats in the election.
Moshe Zarfati, a
former colonel in the air force and a hi-tech entrepreneur, is No. 2 on the
party list, with businessman Reuven Agassi in at No. 3.
Another public
figure who at one point seemed likely to join Am Shalem was Itzik Alrov, the man
who started the cottage cheese uprising of 2011, which has been seen as one of
the triggers of the broader social protests against the high cost of living
later that summer.
Alrov does not, however, appear on Am Shalem’s
list.
Amsalem has said that he intends to “bring back moderate and
beautiful Judaism to the Jewish people... a Judaism which is Zionist and
nationalist, a Judaism of Torah and [earning] a livelihood, of service in the
army... and of accepting those who are different.”
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