Ben-Gvir to Lead Joint Run With Noam Movement

Although talks are said to be continuing with the rightwing list created this week when United Right List and New Right joined together, Otzma Yehudit’s Itamar Ben-Gvir announced Wednesday that his party would run on a separate list together with the new Noam movement. Created in recent days, Noam represents the “Chardal,” or Religious-Zionist Chareidi party, led by followers of Harav Zvi Tau, Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivat Har Hamor.

Ben-Gvir will head the list, and fourth on the list will be Baruch Marzel, an associate of Ben-Gvir’s. Numbers two and three on the list will be Noam candidates. Previously, three such candidates had been announced, among them Rabbi Dror Aryeh, a former resident of Gush Katif, and Yigal Canaan, a former IDF fighter pilot. In a statement, Otzma Yehudit said that it had submitted the joint agreement to the Rabbis of both parties, and they were awaiting their approval.

Speaking on Army Radio Wednesday, Ben-Gvir said that he was open to working with the united right movement, but “there are interests acting against that. Someone in Jewish Home is trying to circumvent efforts by Ayelet Shaked to unify the right; they want her to fail.” Specifically, he said, “Shaked is willing to accommodate my demands, which are minimal, but she is being prevented from doing so by Naftali Bennett.”

Regarding the various offers he is said to have received – for example, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is said to have offered him a Knesset committee chairmanship if he did not run on Shaked’s list – Ben-Gvir said, “I am not interested in jobs, but in ideology. I am running for the Knesset but it is not my motivation for running. I am not interested in the seat, but in the ideas.”