PM Netanyahu
PM NetanyahuYehonatan Waltzer, TPS

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday night said that he has refused to allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, even though agreeing to allow it would have meant Otzma Yehudit bowing out of the elections.

Otzma Yehudit, led by Itamar Ben Gvir, received just under 20,000 votes from right-wing Israelis. It did not cross the electoral threshold, leading to its voted being distributed evenly among the parties which did pass.

"Ben Gvir said he was willing to leave the race and support the Likud, on condition that I allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount," Netanyahu said at a press conference Saturday night. "This is something I know would inflame the entire Middle East. I said there are things I am not willing to do in order to win the elections. Our rivals have no boundaries."

"We rose to 36 Knesset seats. Blue and White remained in its place, with 32 seats. During the elections, I said - and you heard me say it again and again - the left-wing bloc and [Yisrael Beytenu Chairman MK Avigdor] Liberman who joined them will reach a maximum of 53 Knesset seats. In truth they dropped to 47 seats. That's an amazing victory for the right-wing bloc.

"There is no end to the cynicism of Blue and White. Would you allow Israel's government to be dependent on the Joint Arab List? They always justify that by saying that they will disqualify me. I'm not going anywhere. I will remain the Likud's leader."

Joint Arab List MKs have denied Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, denied that there was ever a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, praised terrorists, denied that Arab men represent a disproportionate number of rapists in cases where the victims are Jewish girls and women, and have also refused to join a government led by either Blue and White or Likud.