In a statement released by the party, it said that “The New Right will run as the party of the ideological and liberal Right. This is the only chance of the Right bloc to reach 61 seats and victory.”
Bennett’s party argued that running in parallel to the considerably more religious joint slate of Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Rafi Peretz and nationalist hardliner Itamar Ben Gvir, would, in total, attract more votes to the parties of the right than unifying all into one slate.
While not enough to form a coalition on its own, Channel 12 reports Netanyahu is hoping that Rivlin will consider the 55-seat bloc as a single party and therefore agree to task the premier with forming the next government for having a bigger faction than the standalone Blue and White party.
It was decided to form a joint coalition negotiations team for all factions in the bloc.
In addition to Netanyahu, the meeting saw the participation of Minister Yariv Levin and faction heads: Yaakov Litzman, Moshe Gafni, Naftali Bennett, Rabbi Rafi Peretz, Ayelet Shaked, and Bezalel Smotrich.
The Hayamin Hehadash and Union of Right-Wing Parties announced Monday they would run on a joint ticket in September’s election under the name United Right, following a meeting of party leaders Ayelet Shaked, Naftali Bennett, Rafi Peretz and Bezalel Smotrich.
A pair of television polls aired Sunday gave an alliance of the New Right and Union of Right-Wing Parties headed by Ayelet Shaked 12-13 seats in parliament, if September’s Knesset elections were held today. Shaked was announced earlier Sunday as the New Right’s new leader.
MK Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the National Union party, has already announced that he supports passing legislation to spare Netanyahu from standing trial while in office. Two other parties, Hayamin Hehadash and United Torah Judaism, have said they would consider supporting such a bill.
But the Kulanu party said it would oppose any such legislation.
As it stands, Kahol Lavan maintains a lead of only three seats.
The poll also shows that if the elections were to take place today, six parties would teeter on the brink of the electoral threshold. Avigdor Lieberman‘s Yisrael Beiteinu, the United Arab List-Balad, Meretz, Moshe Feiglin‘s Zehut party and Naftali Bennet and Ayelet Shaked‘s Hayamin Hehadash would all make the minimum four seats needed to enter Knesset.