Former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked recently held talks with activists in the Habayit Hayehudi party Thursday evening, with the goal of sending a message to Habayit Hayehudi leader Rafi Peretz, Israel Hayom has learned. The message? Either he steps down from the top party slot, or on Sunday Shaked will convene a press conference to announce that she will be running for the Knesset on a joint ticket with former Education Minister Naftali Bennett and far-right activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, and possibly even with Bezalel Smotrich and other members of the National Union.
Peretz's people received the message late Thursday and reportedly rejected it out of hand. Shaked said she was not giving Peretz an ultimatum, but rather framing what needed to be done to strengthen the right-wing bloc going into the Sept. 17 election.
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Sources close to Shaked said, "No ultimatum was given. This is a chance to establish unity. Obviously, if that doesn't happen, each party will run separately. There are two possibilities: unity or a liberal, right-wing religious party."
Peretz's people insist that Shaked's message was indeed an ultimatum.
On Monday, Bennett – with whom Shaked co-founded the New Right party after the pair abandoned Habayit Hayehudi, only to see their new party fail to make it over the minimum electoral threshold on April 9 – discussed a possible joint run with Shaked in an Army Radio interview, saying that "all options are on the table."
Bennett said that his relations with Shaked were "excellent" and that "no vote will be lost."
Recently, Peretz spoke out against Shaked serving as head of Habayit Hayehudi. Peretz objects because she is a secular woman, which in his opinion makes her unfit to lead the religious Zionist party. Earlier this month, a number of leading religious Zionist rabbis circulated a petition arguing that no woman, secular or religious, should serve as the head of any political party in Israel.
