National Union approves joint run with URP partners, same electoral list
At the same time, the National Union also decided to keep its list of candidates for the general election in September the same as the April elections.
By JEREMY SHARONMK Orit Struck, Bayit Yehudi candidate Yifat Ehrlich, National Union chairman Bezalel Smotrich, Bayit Yehudi chairman Raffi Peretz and Bayit Yehudi CEO Nir Orbacha(photo credit: Courtesy)
The hardline national-religious National Union Party approved on Monday night its previous agreements to run jointly with Bayit Yehudi and the far-right Otzma Yehudit Party in the upcoming elections.This step merely affirms National Union’s willingness to run once again with the other two parties, which all ran in the April elections on a joint list known as the Union of Right-Wing Parties, since a new agreement between all three parties for a joint run has yet to be reached.At the same time, the National Union also decided to keep its list of candidates for the general election in September the same as the April elections.During the convention of the party’s 120-member central committee, party chairman and Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich again called for unity among the national-religious right-wing parties to ensure the establishment of a right-wing government after the elections.Smotrich’s call for unity is aimed not only at the other URP partners but also at Naftali Bennett’s New Right Party and possibly Moshe Feiglin’s Zehut Party.The failure of those two parties to make it into the Knesset meant that more than 250,000 votes were lost to the right-wing bloc, an eventuality that political and rabbinic leaders on the religious-right are anxious to avoid again.“I call on all the partners: this is the time to unite - we can have our arguments afterwards,” Smotrich told the convention.“We needed to have already approved the unity agreement of all the right-wing parties by yesterday and extended a hand to everyone who hold dear the Land of Israel, the people of Israel, and the Torah of Israel,” he continued.Smotrich said that there was no time for “games of honor” or for the establishment of negotiation teams and long-winded negotiations.“We need simply to unite. That is what the public demands, it is possible and it has to happen.”
