Has the Yamina faction reached the end of the road? New Right leader Naftali Bennett and National Union head Bezalel Smotrich officially parted ways Monday, after a week of reported tensions between the two over Yamina's direction ahead of the March 23 elections.
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Yamina insiders said that Smotrich demanded four slots for his faction in Yamina's future slate, while Bennett insisted he would give him only two.
Announcing the split, Smotrich said he and Bennett were "going our separate ways," adding that Bennett was focused on the economy, while he was set on "uniting the religious-Zionist sector, and chiefly to be the ideological right-wing voice in the Knesset."
The New Right sufficed with a tweet saying, "Smotrich has chosen to split the Right. We wish him the best of luck going forward."
Yamina was formed ahead of the April 2019 elections as a faction comprising the New Right, Habayit Hayehudi and National Union parties. After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not invite Bennett to join the coalition following the September 2020 elections, Yamina headed for the opposition, at which point Habayit Hayehudi broke with it, joining the coalition.
Recent polls, however, predict that Habayit Hayehudi would be unable to pass the prerequisite four-Knesset-seat electoral threshold. Last week, party leader Rafi Peretz announced he was exiting politics.
While it is unclear who would lead Habayit Hayehudi at this time or even if it plans to vie for the next Knesset, Bennett is said to be in negotiations with its members to join him, either as New Right members or as a faction in Yamina.
A poll published by Radio 103FM on Monday, gave the National Union, running on its own, four seats – the minimal number of seats necessary to pass the electoral threshold. Yamina, without the Hawkish Smotrich, was projected to win 17 seats, positioning it as the second-largest faction in parliament.
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