The premise underpinning the creation of the right-wing bloc was to ensure the rule of a right-wing government and shore up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against what seemed to be a coalition of politicians and a biased media determined to remove him – and with him the Right – from power.
For the last three election campaigns, however, the public, which is the real sovereign, has made it clear that it will not allow the Left to usurp the country's leadership.
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All that happened because the various parties representing the political Right decided to band together and present a united front. Call it the "Israeli Republican Party" or the "Israeli Conservative Party" or anything else that comes to mind, but the direction is clear: one alliance of the political Right under one leader.
The public that sympathizes with the ideas of the nationalist camp saw this alliance as a way to form a new political reality and showed it in the ballots, giving the right-wing bloc 58 Knesset seats. This electoral achievement owes its existence to the bloc sticking together.
Shas leader Aryeh Deri, United Torah Judaism head Yakov Litzman, and Yamina chief Naftali Bennett bolstered Netanyahu and that gave him the power to form the government.
The offer Likud made Yamina during the coalition talks was more than fair considering the national-religious faction's size. Two ministries and a committee chairmanship is a decent offer for a six-seat faction and it was by no means a "gross affront" that warranted joining the opposition. Yamina could have entered the coalition and negotiate a better position down the line.
Netanyahu could have also offered a path by which the New Right – the larger party in the faction – could, in the future, become a faction within Likud.
Bennett and New Right co-founder Ayelet Shaked could have entered the coalition, declare their intent to join Likud, and start the clock to on two-year period required for the move that under the Likud's charter and the Knesset's bylaws.
This time could have been spent carving a place for themselves in Likud as a home for conservative-nationalist forces that could bolster this cause in the current government and when the rotation with Blue and White takes place in 18 months.
This is especially important gearing up to the next elections, and this is why Netanyahu and Bennett must tone down the rhetoric and find a way to mend fences.
