The name of the new list founded by Ayelet Shaked and Yoaz Handel, members of the New Right and Derech Eretz, will be “The Zionist Spirit”. The agreement between the two factions was completed at the end of accelerated negotiations that lasted three weeks, and was conducted under the supervision of Yamina’s legal advisor Amichai Weinberg, who represented the party in the announcement of the retirement of MK Amichai Shikli and also serves as the lawyer for the alternate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
The Zionist spirit consists of two factions that could split the day after the elections, which may affect the formation of a government with Benjamin Netanyahu, but its leaders have stated that they wish to act as one faction. Nadav Sheinberger, former chief of staff of Moshe Kahlon, is expected to be appointed to the position of campaign manager.
During the negotiations, Handel demanded a joint leadership and Shaked refused, but at the same time gave up her insistence on giving her party members the second and fifth places, so that the order of the list will be as follows for the time being: Shaked will be at the top, followed by Handel and in fourth place Zvi Hauser, Handel’s friend from the Derech Eretz faction. Regarding the other places on the list, Shaked is committed to her faction members Abir Kara, Yom-Tov Kalfon and Shirley Pinto.
It should be noted that currently all the candidates on the list are secular. The third place is reserved for a candidate from the religious-national sector; In the meantime, they are waiting for Deputy Minister Matan Kahana, who is looking for his political home. Kahana has three options: team up with Handel and Shaked, who may not pass the blocking percentage; to get a safe place in the Blue and White New Hope, in which he wants to be in charge of the religious Zionism “portfolio”; or withdraw for the time being from the political arena.
MK Nir Orbach avoided meeting with Shaked this week. “What is happening now is a mistake in my eyes and keeps her away from the blocking percentage, I don’t know who is advising her,” he told us yesterday. “Yamina’s only ability to pass the blocking percentage is on the basis of religious Zionism.
“The electorate in the state liberal right was captured by Gideon Sa’ar, she is not innovating anything. Those who are looking for their political home today are those who were with us and feel they have nowhere to go now. She should say ‘We are returning to the right-wing bloc, we are turning to religious Zionism led by Netanyahu.’ You can’t play anymore.”
In a closed conversation, Shaked said that “a Zionist spirit will be the home of religious-state Zionism, the one that does not boycott Jews and prevents them from coming to synagogues.” According to her, it will not be “Smotrich’s hate campaign, but Uri Orbach’s bridge. This is the party that will lead to the formation of a government without disqualifying the Likud and Netanyahu, but with the understanding that it is right to form a broad government that will unite the people of Israel together.”
The issue of sitting under Netanyahu is one of the biggest differences between Handel and Shaked, and the two reached a complex formula. In her speech at the United Party’s press conference in Kfar Maccabiah yesterday, she announced that she was not ruling out Netanyahu, but called for a broad unity government. Handel added that they are “firmly opposed to Netanyahu’s narrow government in which they will deal only with what is good for him, they demand unity. A government consisting of the Likud and the center-left will be imposed, there is no other way.”
In her speech, Shaked made a partial soul-searching: “We took a step that contained personal risks, without giving up the tip of the Jud from the right-wing positions. Looking back, the move was not successful, and a narrow government failed to produce governmental stability.” The minister admitted the mistake in the meeting with Ra’am: “The Zionist enterprise cannot depend on the fingers of the elected Arab public.”
Handel, for his part, dismisses Otzma Yehudit and the Arab parties: “There are two camps here. One camp proposes a government of 61 with Ben-Gvir that will fire the prosecutor, stop the trial, and many more issues related to only one person. The second camp offers us a government with the joint party, or alternatively to drag Israel into the sixth and seventh elections in order to exhaust the opposing side.”
A survey published last night on News 12, a day after the launch, credits the new list of Shaked and Handel with four mandates, right on the blocking percentage.