Bayit Yehudi leader Rafi Peretz has abandoned the Yamina alliance of right-wing religious parties and decided to join the new government instead of heading to the opposition benches. It originally appeared that Peretz would become minister of Jerusalem Affairs and National Projects, although reports Thursday afternoon suggested that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be trying to backtrack on the promise of the Jerusalem Ministry. Peretz decision has caused consternation amongst Yamina leaders including Naftali Bennett and Bezalel Smotrich who condemned the Bayit Yehudi leaders move. Peretz told his colleagues that he disagreed with their decision to not enter the coalition and that in a time of emergency, it is essential to take part in a unity government. With Peretz, Netanyahu’s coalition will have 73 MKs. The five remaining Yamina MKs will be in the opposition. Reports also emerged that Peretz was trying to merge Bayit Yehudi into the Likud party which would then cover part of the religious party’s sizeable debts, although senior party members and activists could not confirm this. Following Peretz’s decision, Smotrich disparagingly tweeted a picture of a Mitsubishi car keys in reference to the ministerial cars that ministers are chauffeured in. He also wrote on Facebook that Netanyahu was humiliating Peretz and disrespecting the religious-Zionist community at the same time, by backtracking on his promise of the Jerusalem ministry, saying that after having treated Yamina poorly during the coalition negotiations he could have repaired the damage by giving Peretz a senior ministerial position. “But Netanyahu so completely disregards the religious-Zionist community that is making Rabbi Rafi crawl all night and continues to humiliate him with the offer of some fake ministry for nothing affairs,” wrote the outgoing transportation minister. Eli Ben-Dahan, who served as a Bayit Yehudi MK from 2013 to the end of last government, condemned Peretz’s decision, describing it as a the latest in a long line of broken promises. “Public representatives need to act with honor and respect agreements and pledges they make, Rabbi Rafi has not honored what he has committed to,” said Ben Dahan. Technically Peretz’s decision needs to be approved by the Bayit Yehudi central committee but there seems little chance he will convene it for this purpose. It is possible that the central committee members will appeal any failure to gain its approval to first the party court and then beyond to the state courts, but such a process looks unlikely to be successful. Large numbers of central committee members have been furious with Peretz for months for refusing to allow a primary challenge to his leadership, refusing to allow primaries for the party list, and ejecting former MK Moti Yogev from the party list, amongst other perceived misdeeds. Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.
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