Former Knesset Member Moshe Feiglin, chairman of the Zehut party, explained at a conference of party activists why he would refuse to join a united bloc with right-wing the Otzma Yehudit party.
"Why do they humiliate themselves? Do they not have a future of their own? They want demonstrations, they do not want leadership. We were done with the demonstrations 25 years ago. Zehut represents a revolution in the making,” said Feiglin.
"We are not interested in protesting against Bibi, we do not care about that, the Knesset does not interest us, we are interested in the premiership and we will get there," he declared.
“It will not happen if we look now on how to join the edge of the edge in order to pass the electoral threshold. If I had been interested in that, I would have been at that point by now. Do not you understand that?" Feiglin asked.
A recent poll conducted for Channel 2 found that former Interior Minister and former Shas chairman Eli Yishai’s Yahad party would receive 1.9% of the vote if new elections were held today – falling short of the 3.25% electoral threshold.
The party, which ran on a joint list with the right-wing Otzma Yehudit party in 2015, narrowly missed the threshold for the 20th Knesset, receiving 2.97% of the vote.
The poll also found that Feiglin received 1.2% of the vote.
Combined, the two would still fall short of the 3.25% threshold according to the poll – though a joint list could potentially draw more voters than the two factions could independently, with voters responding to the increased chances of a joint list entering the Knesset.
A 2017 poll showed the Zehut party winning 2% of the vote, though more than 5% of voters would vote for the party if they believed it would pass the minimum threshold. 21% of all respondents said they would consider voting for Zehut.