With the deadline for submitting final candidate lists only hours away – midnight Sunday – the nationalist camp is still in disarray.

The Supreme Court upheld the demotion of Michael Ratzon, Ehud Yatom and Moshe Feiglin.  The Jewish Home party is still unsure whether Uri Ariel’s resignation from its #3 position is final, and therefore has not yet compiled its final list.  Finally, the National Union is apparently re-forming itself, together with Aryeh Eldad’s HaTikvah party and parts of Moledet – but it is not clear whether the Marzel-Wolpe “Our Land of Israel” party is joining them or not.

In the Likud

Former MK Michael Ratzon had been placed in the 29th slot on the Likud list, but was moved back to #38 because of a procedural matter.  At the same time, Moshe Feiglin was moved from 20 to 36, and former MK Ehud Yatom from 24 to 37.  Feiglin was the actual “target” of the re-shuffling, Ratzon alleged, as party leader Binyamin Netanyahu did not want him in a realistic spot on the party’s list of candidates.  Coincidentally, both Ratzon and Yatom were members of the anti-Disengagement camp within the Likud in 2005.

Feiglin did not appeal the decision, saying he had no faith in the public judicial system.  Ratzon did, however, and in fact the Tel Aviv District Court ordered the Likud to reconsider its decision in a five-man panel.  The party was unable to convene such a forum, and the District Court then ruled that Ratzon should be restored to his original placement. However, the Likud appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which overruled the lower court decision, effectively leaving Feiglin and Yatom with Ratzon in the lower spots on the ballot.

Jewish Home

In the Jewish Home, Uri Ariel has announced his resignation from the nascent party. He said at the end of last week that the list did not fulfill the public’s desire for a strong commitment to the Land of Israel.  The party has not yet announced how it will fill in the blank left by Ariel.

National Union

At the same time, it is not certain that Ariel’s resignation is final.  This, in light of difficulties he is having establishing a new list.  Though he has joined forces with the HaTikvah party of MK Aryeh Eldad – his next-door neighbor in the mixed religious-secular community of Kfar Adumim – as well as with Moledet, many question marks still remain.  It has not been announced, for instance, who will be the representative of Moledet on the list, given MK Benny Elon’s announced resignation from politics. 

A more prickly question, however, is that of merging forces with the ”Our Land of Israel” party of Baruch Marzel of Hevron and Chabad Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe.

Wolpe told IsraelNationalNews: “Ariel’s party has offered us practically unacceptable conditions.  For one thing, our representative would only receive the 6th slot on the list.  Secondly, he cannot be either myself nor Marzel.  Third, Ariel wants to reserve the right to enter a Netanyahu coalition.”

INN: “Marzel has said in the past that he does not need to be his party’s candidate, and you, as well, did not even intend to enter politics until very recently.  Why, then, is the second condition not acceptable?”

Wolpe: “They are essentially disqualifying us personally.  They are not merely laying down conditions, but they are saying that we can join them if we don’t exist.”

INN: “You originally said that you were all but forced into running because there was no party that would fight for the Land of Israel.  With Ariel-Eldad in the running, doesn’t that mean that your reason for running is no longer relevant?”

Wolpe: “We said that there was no party that promises to refuse to join a government that negotiates over the Land of Israel – and now we see that Ariel cannot promise that.”

INN: "Do you think that the public will accept such reasoning as justification for further splitting up and loss of votes? After all, if your your representative gets into the Knesset, he can easily break away from the party if it ever wishes to join the coalition against his will. Why cause disunity now?"

Wolpe then admitted that his refusal to run with Ariel-Eldad is not final, and that negotiations are still underway.