The New Right party has announced categorically it will be running alone in the upcoming election, putting an end to persistent rumours and spin that it would join a united list of all right-wing, religious parties. “New Right will run independently in the upcoming elections as the party of the ideological, liberal right,” the party said in a statement to the press, saying that it was aiming at taking seats from Blue and White and Yisrael Beytenu. “This is the only chance for the right-wing bloc has of getting 61 seats and for victory.” The statement said that a second list of right-wing religious parties Bayit Yehudi and National, together with the far right Otzma Yehudit, would run together, although Bayit Yehudi and National Union have yet to come to an agreement. New Right co-founder and leader Naftali Bennett has long been opposed to the religious and social conservatism of the Bayit Yehudi and National Union MKs and leaders, and largely for this reason split from Bayit Yehudi to form his new party ahead of the April 2019 elections. Bennett believes that the likes of National Union leader Bezalel Smotrich, Bayit Yehudi leader Rabbi Rafi Peretz, and far-right Otzma leader Itamar Ben-Gvir in particular will chase away liberal, right-wing voters from his party. In the meantime, Smotrich and Peretz have been in discussions during the course of Monday to formulate an agreement for a joint electoral list, although a deal has yet to be reached. Peretz forged a deal with Otzma last month, largely as a way to weaken Smotrich’s negotiating power, who was gunning for the leadership of a joint Bayit Yehudi and National Union list owing to his own popularity and the severe dissatisfaction with Peretz’s functioning as leader of the united religious-Zionist political party.
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