Bennett and Rabbi Peretz
Bennett and Rabbi PeretzCredit: Yossi Ifragin

Jewish Home chairman and Education Minister Rabbi Rafi Peretz congratulated former ministers Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked on Sunday for the agreement they reached.

"I am happy to see that the New Right leaders are coming to an agreement between them," Peretz wrote on Twitter. "The time has come now for real unification on the right. Ayelet and Naftali are already invited tonight for negotiations regarding a merger."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had summoned Peretz to a meeting on Sunday regarding a right-wing merger, in light of of the expected press conference of former minister Ayelet Shaked on Sunday evening.

Right-wing sources say that Netanyahu is expected to ask Rabbi Peretz to unite the main political bodies in the camp to the right of the Likud, and to give up the first place on the list for that purpose.

According to the same sources, Netanyahu has been exposed in the past few days to surveys that predicted a double-digit number of mandates on a list led by Shaked.

According to a survey conducted by the Dialogue Institute under the supervision of Prof. Camille Fuchs for Arutz Sheva, Shaked would receive 45% of the votes from supporters of the national camp who voted in the last elections for the Union of Right-Wing Parties, the New Right and Zehut.

Another poll showed that if Shaked heads the united right list, she will achieve better results than if Rabbi Rafi Peretz heads the party.

According to the figures, had the elections been held today and the parties to the right of the Likud joined together in one list headed by Ayelet Shaked, the list would have received ten seats, and if the same list were headed by Rabbi Rafi Peretz, it would receive eight seats.