Former Education Minister Naftali Bennett (New Right) said his party was making every effort to form an alliance with the United Right for the upcoming Knesset election, despite reports of a deadlock in negotiations.
In a question-and-answer session with supporters on a Facebook live video stream, Bennett emphasized the importance of all the factions to the right of the Likud unifying ahead of the September 17th election to ensure that no rightist votes are wasted on parties which do not pass the electoral threshold.
“In order to win, we need a big right-wing bloc; only a large right-wing bloc will prevent a leftist government,” said Bennett.
“Last time, the Likud planned to bring in [Labor’s] Avi Gabbay and Stav Shaffir to the government.”
Bennett went on to say that maximizing the number of seats to the right of the Likud was his primary concern.
“In elections, the only thing that matters is mandates. Seats are what later enable us to make [policy] based on our values.”
The ex-Education Minister and former New Right chairman, who recently stepped down to allow Ayelet Shaked to lead the party, said that the alliance with the United Right and other factions would be a temporary one, a so-called “technical bloc”, which would enable all the factions involved to enter the Knesset. After the election, the bloc would be annulled, Bennett continued.
“Immediately after the elections, we will function in the Knesset as an independent faction.”
“A technical bloc is like when people get on the bus together, and when they get passed the checkpoint, in other words the election, they then get off the bus and go their separate ways.”
Bennett also said that in addition to the United Right, he was interested in bringing in Zehut to the joint right-wing ticket.
“I’m going to a meeting this evening in order to help move [the negotiations] along, and afterwards, we will try to bring in the Zehut party into the alliance as well, so that we’ll have one large party.”