MK Nissan Slomiansky of the Jewish Home party believes that the party will emerge strengthened despite the departure of party leader Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked.
"We were constantly aware that Naftali and Ayelet wanted to get to where they were needed, but they thought that maybe the Jewish Home has a glass ceiling and needed to be enlarged or be split," he told Arutz Sheva.
"I felt sorrow and a little disappointment, but this is the reality. We were sitting at an early meeting of the Jewish Home, MKs with Nir, and we sat with Rabbi Druckman and the National Union. It was a 'white night,' but it is important to say that unlike all kinds of rumors, the rabbis of religious Zionism stand behind us, including Rabbi Druckman and Rabbi Melamed," he said.
He said that he is concerned that there will be attempts to siphon MKs from the Jewish Home to the new party. "We need to see how the Jewish home, which is the soul of religious Zionism, is being strengthened, and how it can grow and be stronger. Technically, Nir and the three MKs Ben Dahan, Yogev and myself will sit down with the mechanism and we will have to see how we are progressing. Of course it is clear that we and the National Union are going to be together after the negotiations. I suppose there will be a desire to attract some of the activists to the new list, but we must explain to people that religious Zionism is alive and well."
He stated that the Jewish Home party would continue to be welcoming to people from secular and traditionalist communities and not only to Orthodox Jews. "I want to remind you that the opening of the gates to the general and secular public was done even before Naftali and Ayelet. Ayeyet herself was able to run on the list [despite not being religious]. We are open to everyone. I do not have a specific goal, but it should be at least eight or twelve seats."
He raised an additional concern that the right could lose seats as a result of having too many parties running in the election. "It is clear that the more parties and more splits there are, the more damage there may be with all sorts of parties that will not pass the threshold. So we always aspired to unity and it's a pity that with all kinds of factions like Eli Yishai [head of Yahad party] and [former Likud MK Moshe] Feiglin - in the end, right-wing votes are just lost."
Slomiansky said that he hoped that people would now realize that they would need to vote for the Jewish Home in order to ensure that the government governs from the right. "In the past, there were those who thought that the main right was in power and voted for Bibi, and Bibi succeeded in drawing votes from us . I hope that things will become clearer now and we will be able to strengthen and add voices and people who will understand that support for the Jewish home is important and necessary."