Netanyahu: "Ben Gvir and Smotrich must unite - I will invite them in the coming days"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed this evening to the two right-wing leaders, Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) and Itamar Ben Gvir (Otzma Yehudit), to unite forces ahead of the elections, and warned against a repeat of the 1992 scenario.

"A subject that is not in dispute - Smotrich and Ben Gvir. We must unite. Every time we ran united - we won. When we ran divided - we lost," said Netanyahu.

Netanyahu relies on historical memory to sharpen the warning: "In '92, the right had, like today, more votes than the left. But because there were three parties that did not pass the electoral threshold - we lost to the left. We got the Oslo disaster, Arafat here, Hamas here, and all the rest are ongoing disasters. And therefore it can happen this time too."

The Prime Minister acknowledged the personal disputes between the two, but called to overcome them: "I understand that there are personal grievances between them, they need to be overcome. I will invite them in the coming days, we will make a supreme effort to unite, and this is what the public expects from us - and rightly so."

In a quick response to Netanyahu, Ben Gvir said regarding the call for unity between him and Smotrich: "We both know the truth - you want a small Otzma Yehudit so you can go with Eisenkot, so you can establish a 'broad national government'. Only a large Otzma Yehudit and Smotrich and Winter who will go together, only in this way is it possible to establish a 'full-on' right-wing government."

Netanyahu's call is not accidental: for months he has been working for a union between Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit, and even offered each of them a reserved spot in exchange for agreement. The background is a heavy fear of "wasted votes" in the right-wing bloc - a multitude of small parties that could lower right-wing mandates in favor of the opposition bloc. Smotrich, who has weakened throughout the war, is fluctuating in the polls around the electoral threshold - in some he barely passes, and in others he remains below it - while Ben Gvir's Otzma Yehudit is relatively stable with about 7 mandates.

The complexity is intensified in view of the entry of a new player: the "Amcha Yisrael" party of Brigadier General (res.) Ofer Winter, which is also identified with Religious Zionism and competes for the same pool of votes.

Sources in Netanyahu's circle, including his son Yair, have been working vigorously in recent days and warning voters that a split run of the right-wing parties is "playing Russian roulette with the fate of the country" and could crown a change government led by Eisenkot. At the same time, Netanyahu is keeping reserved spots on the Likud list in case he is required to allocate them for the sake of a large connection in the bloc - between Ben Gvir and Smotrich, or between Likud and Smotrich.