The planned new party uniting Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) and MK Eli Yishai (Shas) “is meant to move the entire political system to the right,” said elements involved in the establishment of the party.
“This is a party that will unite the religious and hareidi publics, and will even bring many votes from voters who are not religious and who see Yishai and Ariel above all as socially minded people. The party will bring votes from the centre to the right and thus enlarge the right wing bloc,” say the party’s architects.
The move is also expected to rob Shas of about half of its Knesset seats, thus keeping Shas from enabling the formation of a left-wing bloc that opposes Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Two internal polls predicted that a union of Yishai and Ariel would receive 7 MKs.
Channel 10 reported that Jewish Home head Naftali Bennett and Shas head Aryeh Deri spoke on the phone and discussed the possibility of taking joint action against the proposed new party.