Yisrael Beytenu leader MK Avigdor Liberman called on opposition party leaders seeking to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to forge alliances with smaller parties or risk failing to cross the electoral threshold in the upcoming elections.
His statement came ahead of next week’s approaching deadline for submitting party lists and as a group of right-wing and centrist parties continues to poll below the electoral threshold, including MK Benny Gantz’s Blue and White, Gilad Erdan’s Unity, and Chili Tropper’s The Zionist Home-The Reservists.
Liberman said that the opposition bloc should form alliances with Gantz, Erdan, and Tropper, noting that “they have no chance of crossing the electoral threshold, but they could cost the serving bloc [opposition bloc] three to four seats.”
“I call on the leaders of the serving bloc to act responsibly; we must all make one final effort to try to forge alliances,” he added.
Liberman told The Jerusalem Post in a July interview that running as part of a political alliance was not an option for his party.
Netanyahu calls on small right-wing parties to unify
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has called on small right-wing parties to make alliances with the parties in his bloc, warning that they could also harm his camp if they run independently.
Liberman’s party is a core part of the opposition bloc. Other parties in that bloc include Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar, Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad, and Yair Golan’s The Democrats.
Gantz’s response to Liberman included reiterating his call for a broad Zionist government to be formed after the elections that would not rely on extremists.
“Faced with either a full-fledged right-wing government or a minority government reliant on the Arab parties, there is only one solution: Only the bloc of the people of Israel will establish a Zionist, cross-bloc government that can pass a genuine conscription law even before the next government is formed; and put an end to bloc-based governments,” Gantz said.
Recent reports have indicated that Gantz and Erdan have been holding talks regarding a possible alliance between their parties.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu also welcomed a newly formed alliance between Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who chairs the Religious Zionist Party (RZP), and Zehut party leader Moshe Feiglin.
Smotrich, Feiglin running together as a technical bloc
The two right-wing leaders said they would run together in the elections as a technical bloc after RZP had been polling near the electoral threshold, while Feiglin’s Zehut party had failed to cross it in recent polls.
Netanyahu had previously called on Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, to run on a joint list, as they did in the 2022 elections. Ben-Gvir openly rejected such an alliance, prompting reports that Smotrich and Feiglin were negotiating a joint run.
Ahead of the deadline for submitting party lists, now is the final opportunity for parties to forge alliances before the elections, which will effectively lock in the final slates of competing parties.
If small parties run in the elections and ultimately fail to cross the electoral threshold, the votes that went toward them will not be counted.
For instance, in the 2022 elections, the Meretz and Balad parties in the anti-Netanyahu bloc did not cross the electoral threshold, wasting approximately 300,000 votes. The current electoral threshold stands at 3.25%.