Sources close to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu say today that Naftali Bennett's Ben Gvir veto has jeopardized the rule of the Right altogether, calling Jewish Home Chariman Rabbi Rafi Peretz's decision to join Bennett and leave Ben Gvir "leadership".
"Prime Minister praises the leadership revealed by Rabbi Rafi Peretz who acted to minimize Bennett's damage to the Right-leaning bloc. Now the Prime Minister expects Ben-Gvir to step down from the race to secure Rightist rule," they added.
Culture and Sport Minister Brig. Gen. (res.) Miri Regev this morning also called on the Otzma Yehudit Party not to contest the upcoming Knesset elections.
In a post to her Facebook page, Regev noted, "Last night, Binyamin Netanyahu tried to do everything possible to avoid the scenario of the '92 elections. But it's not too late to repair. I urge Otzma Yehudit to assume responsible leadership and retire from the race so we don't repeat past mistakes."
Regev recalled, "The '92 elections stood for the spectacular ego and fantasies of the Right. No less than six different Rightist parties contested the same election campaign: Moledet, Tzomet, National Religious Party (NRP - Mafdal), Techiya, Geulat Yisrael, and HaTorah v'HaAretz. The knit-kippah Right then, as today, experienced a crisis. Politicians of the Right then turned to compete for the Rightist electorate's vote, while infighting.
"How did it end? Techiya, Geulat Yisrael, and HaTorah v'HaAretz didn't pass the electoral threshold, wasting about 48,500 votes," Regev noted.
She said, "The results of the elections were very tight: the Right and the haredim won 59 seats, while the Left took 56. The Left didn't win a majority in this election, but the small gap between the blocs allowed Rabin to form a block with the Arab parties and form a narrow Left government. If they had listened to Shamir's proposal then and the Right would have unified, Oslo would never have come about."
During the last election round, disenfranchised Otzma Yehudit leader Michael Ben Ari responded to Regev's assessment of where blame for Oslo rests, writing on Twitter, "Sadly, the truth is this: The one who paved the way to Oslo was Yitzhak Shamir and the Likud who declared the PLO kosher when they participated in the Madrid conference."
At the time, Regev responded: "The one that toppled Shamir was Religious Zionism and they got the Oslo Accords. So I suggest that the religious Zionists relax and calm things down."