Four weeks have passed since the Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked and the Minister of Communications Yoaz Handel passed the blocking percentage for the last time, although these are only surveys, but the public is becoming convinced that this is the case, and trends in surveys are dangerous for politicians. The image of a party that does not pass the percentage of blocking is an image that is difficult to get rid of.
The mood in Shaked’s confused campaign is low and she no longer rules out parting with Handel, in addition, Knesset members Kalphon and Hauser are lowering their media profile when it is not clear to them which place they will receive on the Knesset list. How far are parts of the national religious community from Shaked? This week the Zionist spirit gave a statement to the media near a religious preparatory school in Lod, the directors of the preparatory school specifically requested that the statement not be held at the preparatory school and that the address of the preparatory school not appear in publications. “Even legally we can’t, but mainly we don’t want to be identified with them,” they told me in the seminary, one of the rabbis added: “It is forbidden for a person like Yoaz Handel to be a minister in Israel.”
And now with the video https://t.co/0JcCaT3Swh pic.twitter.com/qkMRZoDZd6
— Amiel Yerachi (@amiel_y) September 5, 2022
At the same time as Shaked’s decline, four weeks have passed since Knesset member Matan Kahane from the right joined the state camp led by Benny Gantz, in the environment of the former Minister of Religions, they are convinced that his move is the one that brought Shaked down below the threshold, and this is the reason for Gantz’s generous offer, Kahane brings with him Knitted votes outside the bloc, not half a mandate from Mish Atid, half a mandate from Ayelet Shaked in Bezalel Smotrich.
Everyone wants this soft right-winger, who can decide the elections, two mandates that can crown Netanyahu as prime minister or force unity on him. Gantz hits 4 in ten, Shaked is in advanced talks with the Jewish Home, Netanyahu is launching a campaign with a national religious couple from Tel Aviv and Smotrich is struggling with how to appeal to those people, the soft right who voted for Bennett and whose voice can crown a prime minister twice in two years.
Netanyahu’s dream could turn into his nightmare
What government will be established after the elections? In the right-wing bloc, everyone declares that they are waiting for a right-wing government, Netanyahu, on the other hand, uses different terminology, “a national government”, a small difference that shows that perhaps Netanyahu initially prefers a government with Gantz or an outsider rather than a winning right-wing government. Even if he wants a narrow right-wing government, the dream can turn into a nightmare. Likud officials and former officials who were pushed out in the primaries say in closed conversations that they will blackmail Netanyahu for positions even though they finished in a low place. They have nothing to lose because they may not be elected the next time, and in the 61st government every Chief of Staff is wanted.