Regev scorns Bennett, Shaked for only unifying with URP

Regev urged Bennett and Shaked to show responsibility and form a real unity party with the other small parties.

Miri Regev arrives at a weekly cabinet meeting, March 3rd, 2019 (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Miri Regev arrives at a weekly cabinet meeting, March 3rd, 2019
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Minister of Culture Miri Regev scorned Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked on her Facebook page for creating a unity party with only Bayit Yehudi, while leaving the other small right-wing parties out.
According to the deal between the two parties, New Right leader Ayelet Shaked will take the No. 1 place on the joint list, Bayit Yehudi leader Rabbi Rafi Peretz will be No. 2, National Union leader Betzalel Smotrich will be No. 3, and New Right co-founder Naftali Bennett will be No. 4.
Bayit Yehudi and National Union will receive nine of the remaining top 20 spots, and New Right will receive seven.
"Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett apparently think that they can succeed in fooling everyone all the time," wrote Regev. She added that Bennett and Shaked didn't succeed in forming a real unity party and all together have returned to where they were in the last elections.
Regev also claimed that Bennett and Shaked are relying on the Likud party to take care of the other small right-wing parties.
"Forget about it," wrote Regev, stressing that the Likud is a "democratic party with primaries" and had filled their quota of realistic seats set aside for non-Likud parties with four representatives from the Kulanu party which unified with Likud.
In a statement to the media, New Right said that representatives of other right-wing parties that might join would have to be given reserved slots on the Likud party list, although sources in National Union said that there is still a possibility such candidates could be added to the merged United Right list.
The Likud party released a statement immediately saying that “there will be no more people added to the Likud list, given the absorption of (Moshe) Kahlon’s (Kulanu) party into Likud.”
Regev urged Bennett and Shaked to show responsibility and form a real unity party with the other small parties. "Otherwise, precious right-wing votes will be thrown in the trash yet again," wrote Regev. "Wake up, the right-wing government is really in danger!"
Leaders of the New Right and URP are unwilling to offer the No. 4 or No. 5 spots on a combined list that Otzma Yehudit is demanding, and, according to party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, have not been in contact him for negotiations over the last 10 days.
The threat of an imminent deal with Noam seems designed to force the hand of the bigger parties to bring Otzma into the right-wing union under the terms it has demanded.
“I did want to do a big unity deal with all the right-wing because a big bloc will stop the establishment of a left-wing government and could bring many more MKs [to the Right],” Ben-Gvir said on Monday morning on KAN Radio.
“But there are those who want Otzma’s voters and to use us and throw us away,” he continued. He added that National Union leader Bezalel Smotrich “has gone to Bayit Yehudi officials one after the other and said ‘don’t worry about Otzma, I’ll force them to reduce their demands, we’ll get their votes and not give them real representation.’”
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.