Hagit Moshe
Hagit MosheArutz Sheva

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Hagit Moshe, who was elected head of the Jewish Home Party yesterday (Tuesday), will begin talks today to unite with Bezalel Smotrich's religious Zionism party, and will consider a joint run with Naftali Bennett's Yamina.

Even before the negotiations began, Moshe told her associates that in the next government, if she enters it, she will want to be appointed Minister of Education or Minister of Religion.

In the Jewish Home primaries, Moshe won 472 votes from members of the party, compared to 369 votes received by the party's outgoing general manager, Nir Orbach. In her first position with the party, she held the finance portfolio; she currently holds the education portfolio and the portfolio of communities and young families.

86.6 percent of the members of the Jewish Home party participated, 841 out of 973 members voted at the party’s voting center. A total of 732 members voted at the polls nationwide and 109 voted by electronic ballot.

In her victory speech, Moshe addressed the sons and daughters of religious Zionism: "It is with tremendous gratitude and excitement that I stand before you today. The Jewish Home Party in its various incarnations has always been the leading political arm of religious Zionism, faithful to the path of Torah, service, and civility. The party that always knew how to proudly and without conflict carry the flag of the Torah, the flag of the people and the flag of the land all at once.”

''We have been blessed. The national religious public is a public with diverse opinions, but everyone has a place in our home. The eyes of the national religious public are on us, the public is waiting for genuine unity. Over the years we learned how to work together despite our disagreements because we had a responsibility to the public. When we split we lost our political power. As a result, the public we represent and our great enterprises have been damaged.

“My sole guiding principle is the good of the party, and the good of religious Zionism that is now everyone’s driving force. We will not paint in only one color, but rather the entire spectrum of diversity that is a unified religious Zionist front.”

''I now call together my brethren, scattered as they are in every party. I call together the Haredim, the liberals, the ‘lites’, the kibbutzniks, the settlers, the people of the farm and the city, from the periphery and the center. Everyone has a place in our home and we want everyone. We are now embarking together on a journey, a journey to rehabilitate the party, a journey in which all party members will be partners, a journey back to a democratic party with transparent institutions, a journey to restore public trust in the party and its path. A campaign in which we will return the Jewish Home party to be the spearhead of religious Zionism. "

She thanked the outgoing chairman of the Jewish Home, Rabbi Rafi Peretz, who led the party through a particularly challenging period, and thanked Nir for his 8 years in running the party.

"Friends, we went through an election campaign full of emotions, on the path of religious Zionism. Now that the elections are over, I call on everyone - those who voted for me and those who voted against - to join together and help the party push forward.”