Shaked to Peretz: Make deal by today
New Right leader: Time is running out
New Right leader Ayelet Shaked has called on Bayit Yehudi leader Rabbi Rafi Peretz to make a deal with her party by Sunday, saying “time was running out.”
Channel 12 reported Saturday night that associates of Peretz had warned he will resign from Bayit Yehudi if he has to give up the number one spot on a joint list.
A spokesman for Peretz did not respond to a request for comment.
At the same time, wellplaced sources have stated that Peretz has already conceded in principle to give leadership of a joint list to Shaked, and said disagreements in the negotiations are over how positions six to 10 will be allocated.
Recent polls have weakened Peretz’s hand. Some give Bayit Yehudi and National Union only four Knesset seats, while Shaked’s assumption of the New Right leadership has bolstered its standing to as many as 10 seats.
Writing on Facebook just before Shabbat, Shaked said there were still gaps between the two parties and differences of opinion, “but not big ones,” and added that she expected Peretz and National Union leader Bezalel Smotrich to do everything to bring all the right-wing religious parties together with New Right.
“I think this is the order of the hour, and if we entrench ourselves with demands that are not commensurate with reality we will all lose. The right wing will lose,” she warned Peretz.
“Time is running out. A decision needs to be made on Sunday. I hope we will succeed.”
The deadline for submitting electoral lists to the Knesset is Thursday at 10 p.m.
Shaked is seeking to unite New Right with Bayit Yehudi and National Union, which have themselves already united, as well as Otzma Yehudit and possibly Moshe Feiglin’s Zehut Party.
If an agreement is not worked out, Shaked could turn to Zehut or the far-right Otzma Yehudit and make a deal without Bayit Yehudi and National Union.
On Friday, Smotrich rejected reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to stymie an agreement with New Right, and said there was “no chance in the world” that National Union and Bayit Yehudi would not be running with New Right.