Shaked (R) and Bennett in press conference
Shaked (R) and Bennett in press conferenceFlash 90

Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a Middle East expert and senior lecturer in Arab affairs at Bar-Ilan University who supported the New Right party, responded to the news that Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Education Minister Naftali Bennett failed to pass the threshold to enter the 21st Knesset by 1,400 votes.

"The young people don't want sectarian political parties," Kedar told the Israel Hayom newspaper. "Religious Zionist youth see themselves as Israeli Jews and only afterward as religious. Bennett and Shaked focused on this sentiment and tried to gain from this disdain of sectarianism by saying that they're citizens of Israel rather than emissaries of a certain sector."

"Those who supported them were the ones who transcended the sectarianism that has always characterized religious politics but that wasn't enough," Kedar explained.

Prof. Asher Cohen, head of the School of Communications at Bar-Ilan University, said that "[Zehut party leader Moshe] Feiglin managed to convince each person about the relevant issues from his platform and influenced the young people, who by nature tend to the extremes. He offered a fresh spirit in contrast to the old establishment - ideas of freedom."

"Ultimately, the 'Feiglinist' influence mainly affected the Religous Zionist population. Feiglin was the biggest blow to the Bennett and Shaked electorate," Cohen concluded.