Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich held a joint conference in Jerusalem on Thursday, seeking to mobilize right-wing voters and increase turnout ahead of the October 27 elections.
The joint conference came after Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party and Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionist Party (RZP) signed a surplus vote-sharing agreement on Tuesday. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party – also part of Netanyahu’s coalition bloc – subsequently stated that Likud had refused to sign a surplus-vote agreement with it.
Ben-Gvir was not invited to the conference, titled Saving the Right, which included dozens of Religious Zionist rabbis, along with heads of yeshivas.
“We are taking the energy of the communities and institutions, and with them we are going into the elections full force,” Smotrich said at the conference in Jerusalem.
“They will explain, persuade, recruit, motivate, and get people out to vote. With God’s help, we can bring victory to the national camp and continue all the wonderful processes in settlement, security, Torah, education, Jewish identity, and extensive social work,” he added.
Netanyahu: Right coming together is 'matter of national survival'
Netanyahu praised Smotrich for his work as finance minister throughout the government’s term, while speaking at the conference.
“I’m talking about all those crossroads over these past three years when we had to overcome, together, pressure from within and from abroad to surrender, give in, retreat, and bow our heads,” Netanyahu said.
“This is not only a matter of national honor – it is a matter of national survival,” he added.
RZP stated that the goal of the conference was to “create a broad network of thousands of activists with the aim of bringing tens of thousands of right-wing voters to the polls.”
Recent polls have shown that neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor the opposition bloc seeking to replace him can secure a majority without support from Arab parties. A Wednesday Channel 13 poll projected 55 seats for Netanyahu’s bloc and 50 for the opposition bloc, excluding Arab parties.
On Tuesday, Otzma Yehudit had accused Likud of seeking to form a unity government with Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar party and the leading candidate for prime minister in the opposition bloc in recent polling.
Ben-Gvir on Thursday posted a picture of Smotrich at the joint conference on social media, alongside the message, “I love every Jew.”
Unclear if Otzma Yehudit will sign surplus-vote agreement
It remains unclear whether Otzma Yehudit will sign a surplus-vote agreement before the approaching submission deadline.
The RZP party platform has focused on Jewish identity, settlement expansion, and Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank.
The party has recently faced criticism over its support for contentious legislation advanced by Netanyahu’s coalition in the Knesset and sponsored by the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties. Critics argued that the legislation encouraged draft evasion amid the IDF’s severe manpower crisis.
Smotrich has pushed to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with over 100 initiated during his tenure, sparking international condemnation.
In the previous election, RZP ran on a joint ticket with Otzma Yehudit, allowing both parties to cross the electoral threshold.
In August, Netanyahu urged Ben-Gvir and Smotrich to join forces again in the upcoming election to strengthen the right-wing bloc, but Ben-Gvir refused.