Netanyahu allies split over far-right election slate

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party criticised far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Friday after he rejected calls to run on a joint election slate with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Likud warned that a split vote among Netanyahu's hard-right allies could damage the coalition's chances in the October 27 election.

“What does Ben Gvir want? A broad national government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu... or because of personal considerations, to burn right-wing votes in order to put a left-wing government in power?” Likud's official account wrote on X.

Netanyahu has called for unity among his hard-right allies as a new far-right party founded by former general Ofer Winter rises in the polls. Analysts say Winter could draw votes from Smotrich's base and possibly stop Smotrich's Religious Zionism party from clearing the 3.25 percent electoral threshold unless it joins another party list.

In a video posted on X on Thursday night, Netanyahu said Smotrich and Ben Gvir “must unite”. He said the right had won when it ran united and lost when it ran separately.

Smotrich appeared open to the proposal, writing on X that it was time for “unity and responsibility in the national camp”. Netanyahu invited Ben Gvir and Smotrich to a meeting on Sunday and wrote that the right-wing bloc “must not waste a single vote”.

Ben Gvir accused Netanyahu of seeking to weaken his Jewish Power party, which polls around seven to eight parliamentary seats. “According to all polls, a joint run between me and Smotrich would set Jewish Power back by three to four parliament seats,” Ben Gvir wrote on X.

Ben Gvir suggested Netanyahu should instead push for a joint slate between Winter and Smotrich.

Smotrich and Ben Gvir have run together twice before. Their joint list won six seats in 2021 and 14 seats in the 2022 election that produced the current parliament, before splitting into Smotrich's Religious Zionism and Ben Gvir's Jewish Power, with seven seats each.