Bentz Gopshtein (left), Itamar Ben-Gvir (right)
Bentz Gopshtein (left), Itamar Ben-Gvir (right)Kobi Richter/TPS

After weeks of negotiations, the Otzma Yehudit party has agreed Wednesday morning to a joint run with the Jewish Home and National Union factions for the 21st Knesset.

In a statement Wednesday morning, Otzma Yehudit announced that it had accepted a compromise deal with the Jewish Home-National Union alliance for a technical bloc, placing the three factions on a single list in the elections, but not obliging Otzma to remain with the Jewish Home and National Union in the Knesset.

The arrangement offered by the Jewish Home and accepted by Otzma Wednesday morning would give Otzma the fifth and eighth spots on the joint Knesset list.

“The leadership of Otzma Yehudit decided at an emergency meeting to accept the demand of Otzma rabbis, and to join a technical bloc with the National Union and Jewish Home on the fifth and eighth spots”

“For the sake of the Land of Israel and the many people in the public who have called for unity on the right so that, God forbid, a left-wing government will not be established, the Otzma Yehudit faction has decided to accept the joint list offer from the Jewish Home and National Union, taking the fifth and eighth spots – despite the fact that based on all the data and in most recent polls, Otzma was guaranteed to bring at least four seats. But when the choice is the Land of Israel or our own honor, we choose the Land, and the establishment of a right-wing government.”

The announcement on the breakthrough is expected to be followed by the signing of an election agreement between the three factions.

Earlier, talks between Otzma and the Jewish Home had reached an impasse after Jewish Home representatives refused Otzma’s demands for either the fourth and eight spots, or the fifth and seventh.

Rabbis advising Otzma, including former Hevron-Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior, and Rabbi Yehuda Kroizer, Mitzpeh Yericho Chief Rabbi and dean of the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea (the yeshiva founded by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane), said Otzma should accept the Jewish Home’s demands, even as they called the terms “unfair”.

“Despite the fact that the offer made by Jewish Home and National Union representatives is unfair, it should be accepted for the sake of the future of the Land of Israel.”