Gottlieb defends Ben Gvir - Yair Netanyahu: "Personal hatred and ego"
The Likud MK backed the Otzma Yehudit chairman's refusal to unite with Smotrich and called on the Religious Zionism chairman to join Winter or Feiglin. The Prime Minister's son responded sharply: "He is playing Russian roulette with the fate of the country."
The debate within Likud over the unification of right-wing parties intensified on Friday, after MK Tali Gottlieb expressed support for Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's refusal to run on a joint list with Religious Zionism - and received a sharp response from Yair Netanyahu.
"Itamar Ben Gvir is right, completely right. He is not the lifebuoy for the Religious Zionism party," Gottlieb wrote on the X network.
According to her, the responsibility for preventing the loss of votes in the right-wing bloc lies with Religious Zionism chairman Bezalel Smotrich. "The message must be that any right-wing party that does not pass the electoral threshold must not run in the elections," she added.
Gottlieb proposed several alternatives to Smotrich's independent run: a connection with Ofer Winter, a union with Moshe Feiglin, or receiving one or two reserved spots on the Likud list. According to her, Likud must clarify to the public that one should not "waste" votes on new right-wing parties that will not pass the electoral threshold.
Yair Netanyahu responded sharply to her words and called on Ben Gvir to agree to a broad technical block with Smotrich, Winter, and Feiglin. "Tell me, are you serious?! Why wouldn't his highness Itamar deign to unite into one big technical block with Smotrich, Winter, and Feiglin, so that the right won't waste a single vote?" he wrote.
Netanyahu claimed that the left-wing and Arab parties arrive at the elections united, and wondered why Ben Gvir refuses a similar connection on the right. "There is no reason for them to run separately other than personal hatred and ego," he wrote, and warned that the Otzma Yehudit chairman might be remembered as someone who helped establish a left-wing government due to his refusal to unite.
The exchange comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited Ben Gvir and Smotrich to a meeting in an attempt to promote a joint run. Within four minutes, Otzma Yehudit announced that the decision not to run with Religious Zionism was "final and absolute," and that no contacts would be held on the matter.
At a meeting held last week, Netanyahu demanded that Ben Gvir join Smotrich, but the Otzma Yehudit chairman presented in-depth polls which he claimed indicate that the move would harm the electoral potential of both parties. Ben Gvir proposed reserving a spot for Smotrich in Likud, but Netanyahu opposed it, claiming that his own list could also be harmed by the move.
