Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing an unusual threat ahead of the October 27 election: divisions within the far-right bloc that support his government.Smotrich’s Religious Zionism and Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power, which ran together in the 2022 elections, have rejected Netanyahu’s calls for another merger amid tensions. Meanwhile, smaller parties led by former Likud members and former general Ofer Winter are competing for the same right-wing voters, deepening fragmentation.“When we unite, we win. When we split up, we lose,” Netanyahu told Israel’s local media outlet Channel 14, according to AP.Netanyahu currently heads a coalition of religious and ultranationalist parties.Netanyahu’s Likud party on Friday rebuked national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for refusing to run on a joint slate with finance minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, warning that a divided vote could weaken the coalition’s chances of retaining power.Several smaller parties are competing for the same right-wing electorate, raising the prospect that some could fall below Israel’s electoral threshold and leave their votes without parliamentary representation.Under Israel’s electoral system, parties must secure at least 3.25 per cent of the vote to win representation in the 120-member Knesset. A party that falls below the threshold receives no seats, making fragmentation particularly consequential for Netanyahu’s bloc.The Financial Times reported that Netanyahu has sparred publicly with Ben-Gvir, who rejected a meeting this week to discuss a merger with Smotrich. Ben-Gvir accused the prime minister of an “attempt to weaken” his Jewish Power party.Netanyahu responded by urging Ben-Gvir to “not burn tens of thousands of rightwing votes . . . and crown a leftwing government”, while also telling him to “overcome your personal ego”.Ben-Gvir, however, argues that a merger could cost his party seats. “According to all the polls, a connection between me and Smotrich distances Jewish Strength by 3-4 mandates who won’t come to vote, and the right-wing government will fall!” he wrote on X.The dispute has left Netanyahu pressing harder for unity. In a video posted on X, he said Smotrich and Ben-Gvir “must unite. Every time we ran united, we won. When we ran separately, we lost.”“In 1992, the Right had more votes than the Left, like today, but because we were running separately, we got the disaster of Oslo, Arafat, Hamas and recurring catastrophes,” Netanyahu said, referring to the peace process launched through the Oslo Accords.Smotrich appeared more receptive, writing on X, “It’s time for unity and responsibility in the national camp.”Netanyahu subsequently invited Ben-Gvir and Smotrich to meet on Sunday, saying, “We must not waste a single vote; we must unite to save the right-wing bloc!”The stakes are high for Netanyahu, whose nearly uninterrupted 17 years in power are being tested in an election shaped by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, mass protests and wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.The parties have until September 8 to decide whether to merge, withdraw or contest the election separately.
