Each of the heads of the various parties that make up the Yamina faction watched as the results of the exit polls were released at the conclusion of Election Day, but they did not so together: Bezalel Smotrich was watching from the party's campaign headquarters, while Rafi Peretz did so from the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel. Even their good friends, Yamina leader Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett, were at their respective homes at the time. While this little anecdote might not be of any practical significance, it is symbolic of what happened to the party over this election: division, a lack of coordination, and internal wars that combined to result in resounding failure.
The Israeli public abhors political disagreements. When everyone rallied behind Bennett in 2013, Habayit Hayehudi garnered 12 Knesset seats. But this time around, nearly every step that the Yamina faction – of which Habayit Hayehudi is a member – took was accompanied by arguments and internal criticism. The party, which had hopes to earn 12 Knesset seats, will barely scrape by with seven.
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Barely a day goes by in which there is some report of friction in Yamina. It started with covert pressure from Shaked on Peretz, and as reported by this paper, culminated in an ultimatum, to let her take his place at the head of the list. To this day, there are people in the party willing to swear on their lives that Shaked had a hand in the publication of recordings of Peretz's wife Michal that served to deeply embarrass Peretz in the public sphere. In the recordings, Michal can be heard saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said Peretz would only stay on as education minister if Shaked were kept off the top of the list. The reports in the media only added to the pressure on Peretz to step down. Shaked, of course, denies having anything to do with the leaked recordings.
These types of reports were coming out on an almost daily basis during the election campaign. Shaked wanted to hang a huge sign on the Ayalon Highway, and members of Habayit Hayehudi opposed the idea. The decision to have Shaked's picture plastered on the side of buses angered party members. Smotrich published a missive to the national religious community. Peretz, who hadn't been informed of the move, was angered by it.
Many spoke of how Shaked had not succeeded in situating herself as the party's sole leader. Her fellow party members would arrive late to meetings she held, leave in the middle to make phone calls, and in general, show her contempt. Even Shaked's best friend Bennett, who succumbed to his close partner's desire to work toward one list instead of two parties, did not do so wholeheartedly. He may have taken a step back and given her his full support, but he could not shake the thought that while he believed in the New Right, she was merely biding her time on her path back to the Likud.
By Wednesday morning, Shaked was the subject of scathing criticism. According to her fellow faction members, Shaked had said that if the party garnered seven Knesset seats under her leadership, she would resign. They also came out against her with anonymous smears of her as a failed party leader.
This is not how you win an election. This is not how you build a party.
