The current season of the political thriller "Battles on the Right" will reach an end at the beginning of August, when the final party lists for the September election are submitted. But there is only one way to ensure a happy ending in the season finale – by at least four right-wing parties running on a joint list.
Some people are opting to stay in the corner into which they've backed themselves, and some are choosing to be responsible adults. Last week, immediately following the mutual and completely unnecessary mudslinging between former Education Minister Naftali Bennett and MK Moti Yogev, head of the National Union party Bezalel Smotrich started trying to coax the leaders of the other right-wing parties out of the trenches they had dug and lay the groundwork for a joint right-wing list. Everyone has demands and everyone has their own understandable reasoning. But today, everyone must be willing to demonstrate pragmatism and a willingness to compromise.
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The parties to the Right of the Likud need to secure at least 12 seats in the 2019 do-over election. That can only happen if they run together. Less ego; more responsibility to the public. The only way to thwart Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman's intention to force a unity government that will weaken the national camp – and possibly recommend a left-wing candidate for prime minister – is to do an end-run around Yisrael Beytenu, by several seats. That is the goal.
There is a place on the Right and certainly among the religious-Zionist camp for debates but there's no point in holding them right now because the Right is starting off the new election campaign from a clearly disadvantageous position. Not necessarily an ideological disadvantage, but one of morale. In the last episode, the Right won the election but lost the battle to assemble a government. Right-wing voters expected, justifiably, four strong years in power, but received only billions of shekels down the drain. The far-right split, and those behind the split lost. Now that they are being presented with a chance to fix it, they are busy fighting over who will be No. 1 on the list. In a proper scenario, at least four parties – the New Right, Habayit Hayehudi, National Union, and Otzma Yehudit – would agree to run as a joint right-wing list, even if it is only a technical bloc for the sake of the election.
We must ensure a strong Right in the upcoming election, one that comprises the Likud and a single strong party to the Right of the Likud with which the latter can form a coalition committed to the values of the national camp. The choice will be between policy based on applying Israeli sovereignty and promoting Israel as a Jewish, democratic nation or a left-wing state that will concede territory and demonstrate ineffectuality against the Palestinians; between a strong coalition that will pass nationalist laws of strategic value, or a weak one.
MK Smotrich did well to bring the pragmatic discourse a step in the direction of the right-wing unity we long for. Now leader of Habayit Hayehudi Rafi Peretz needs to shush the wheeler-dealers in his party, approve the deal with Tkuma and Otzma Yehudit as soon as possible, and then sit down and discuss details with former ministers Bennett and Ayelet Shaked until the joint list we all hope for is secured.
