Yamina Merges with Derech Eretz

By Yisrael Price

YERUSHALAYIM — Ayelet Shaked and Yoaz Hendel improved their prospects of political survival by merging their Yamina and Derech Eretz parties on Wednesday.

Whether their combined strength will be sufficient to pass the 3.25% electoral threshold — which neither can do separately according to current polls — remains to be seen in the next three months before the November 1 elections.

Interior Minister Shaked, who took over at Yamina after Naftali Bennett resigned, will run at the top of the new slate, to be called Zionist Spirit.

Communications Minister Hendel — whose Derech Eretz faction was part of Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party, which recently merged with Justice Minister’s Gideon Saar’s New Hope party — will have the second and fourth slots on the ticket.

At the signing of the merger papers on Wednesday, Shaked acknowledged that she has a lot of explaining to do if she is to win a significant portion of the right-wing vote.

“I would like to do some soul-searching toward the public that elected me,” she said. “I know that many of you have been hurt. A year ago, when the government was formed, we wanted to prevent the madness of a fifth round of elections. We thought that was the right thing at this time for the State of Israel. We believed that it was possible to create a partnership in order to address the needs of all citizens of Israel. We undertook move that contained public and personal risks and opportunities.”

Shaked, who was Bennett’s No. 2 in Yamina, said she has learned the lesson that “a Zionist government cannot rely on an Arab party,” after the Bennett-Lapid coalition was deeply compromised by the presence of the Islamist Ra’am party.

She and Hendel promised they will dedicate themselves to national unity.

Hendel said, “We are standing here tonight, Ayelet and I, with a great sense of mission to get the State of Israel out of the crazy spiral it is in. Five elections in a short time has only deepened the rift and division in the nation. There are no winners here, only losers. We as a country lose. We are here for the State of Israel to win.”

As communications minister, Hendel authorized a ban on the kosher-phone system over the objections of rabbinical leaders and hundreds of thousands of chareidi customers.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yair Lapid met with his predecessor Naftali Bennett this evening at Lapid’s home in Tel Aviv.

The two discussed various security and policy issues, according to a government statement, which gave no further details.

Bennett handed over the premiership to Lapid late last month when the government collapsed, as provided for by their coalition agreement.

Bennett said at the time he would be stepping away from politics, and has been mostly out of public view since then, though he officially occupies the office of alternate prime minister.