If the Jewish house wants to go through the blockage, they will have to think outside the box. • Smutrich has two options: reunion with Rafi Peretz, or running with Bennett.

• After running together, no one is in a hurry to reconnect. Peretz and Smutrich

  Photo:

  Liron Moldovan

They say that in every Jewish town there are two synagogues - one that goes to it and one that never goes to it. This is probably the most appropriate analogy to what has been going on over the past week in the religious Zionist parties, which are, at least at the moment, in a direct course towards a giant glacier.

Last weekend, a tiny political bang took place. In a surprising move, they announced a commitment to Jewish power, leaving the members of the National Union, led by Bezalel Smutrich, outside the agreement. The reaction of the National Union was acute. Factors tell of total disconnection from the National Union over the past week. No talks, no fumbling and no press references. "Smutrich on Chanukah vacation," is the official claim.

Let's go back a little. In the last decade, the parties of religious Zionism have been largely rebel in their relations. In the years following Naftali Bennett's achievement in the 2012 elections, it was repeatedly argued that the National Union and the Jewish House wanted to form one large party, but in practice nothing was done. In the last election, the two parties, together with the new right, ran in a technical bloc to pass the blockade, after which the allegations of apparent consolidation came up again. Despite the long-standing relationship between the parties, for unclear reasons, they failed to reach consensus on forming a large party.

Following the announcement of exit for the 2020 elections, various parties in both parties initiated renewed proposals for formal and final unification, along with an exit for primaries to select candidates for the next Knesset. However, although a formal proposal has already been submitted, the gaps remain deep. In the National Union, primaries demanded a party to introduce new blood into the system and prove that the joint party was still relevant to the public, and on the other side of the Jewish House, some claimed it was unrealistic. "For two weeks, we went head-to-head with the story of the primaries, even though it was clear to everyone that there was no feasibility," says a party official.

In recent weeks, several meetings have been held at the home of Rabbi Haim Druckman, the elder of the rabbis of religious Zionism, in the presence of the heads of the National Union and the Jewish House in an attempt to reach agreement between the parties. Finally, the Jewish House announced that they saw no possibility of holding primaries and called for full unification between the parties, a critical requirement of the National Union. In the environment of Minister Smutrich, there are great difficulties in working with Rabbi Peretz and his environment, both because of trust issues and the background of decision making.

An atmosphere of heavy rage

Last Friday, the National Union arose into a new reality in the form of a joint run of Jewish power and the Jewish home. The latter have called for Smutrich to join in the joint run, but the National Union has been in complete silence for a week and is not responding to calls. Officially, the requirement to merge parties and democratic elections to the list - primaries or party center unification - is the only option for National Union members to save religious Zionism. The message behind the statement is clear - if they do not come together and reach consensus in the Jewish home, they have more options.

There is no doubt that the situation of the Jewish home is shaky, to the point of real danger to its existence. 63 years after the IDF was formed, and seven years after it reached the height of its new cap under the leadership of Naftali Bennett, polls point to an unequivocal fact - if the party fails to reinvent itself, it may not pass the blockade. In 2019, the right-wing parties were able to get 20,000 votes over the blocking percentage and get five seats, and in round two seven seats were also unified with the new right, this time, they understand, this is a real war on the blocking rate.

In recent weeks, there has been a lot of rage within the Jewish House institutions over recent moves. The party's wetsap groups call for a dramatic change in the rules of the game. "It is unclear to me why they have not yet reunited with Bezalel. This is all the rage," one activist wrote. Another offered to put Moti Yogev as number 1 instead of Peretz, and third added "It is unclear why Rabbi Rafi is still in the lead." In another correspondence, one activist wrote that it was an existential danger. "In our situation, if we continue with the divisions, there is a danger that we will not be," he noted. The rabbis of the party, led by Rabbi Druckman, also call for unification and attack, whether openly or behind the scenes, the conduct of the Jewish home. The party's deputy mayors announced this week that they would consider continuing through them, another serious threat that indicates the party's precarious state.

Who but Mishi?

But Rabbi Rafi Peretz is not the only one in trouble. Bezalel Smutrich is also in a trap because he has to unite with one of the parties, because if he does not, he will be considered as a factor that has caused religious Zionism not to pass the blocking percentage. Religious Zionism, he knows, will not be quick to forgive him for such a move. Therefore, he currently has two realistic options - swallowing the converted pill and uniting with the Jewish home, or running a technical block with the new right.

In some ways, the announcement of the Jewish home and Jewish power over a joint run made Smutrich somewhat reluctant to make the decision, as he can now wholeheartedly leave the Jewish home in favor of Shaked and Bennett's new right. The fact that Jewish power will run with the Jewish home means that Smutrich is not seen as the right-most factor in the elections, which lowers the fire on the left and makes it easier to join the new right. At the same time, the ideological differences between Bennett and Shaked and Smutrich and his men will require the parties to adopt a clear policy and make it clear that this is only a technical run. Israel Today announced this week that the New Right does not rule out the possibility of connecting the two parties to a technical bloc.

There are three more weeks until the lists are submitted, on January 14, and everything is still open. It is believed that the unification of the National Union and the Jewish Home has not yet been resolved, but the first will require a dramatic change to broadcast to the public that something new is beginning - again. Smutrich does not want to be the culprit for the collapse of the Jewish home definitively, so it requires wide-ranging changes to prove to the public that something has changed. Religious Zionism has been massacred in transactions that have been accompanying the Jewish House for many years, and along with the indictments on Netanyahu, many of them are expected to vote for Likud. "This time Netanyahu will not have to campaign at all," says a senior religious Zionist official. "The religious will vote for him because they realize they have no alternative."

So if they want to stay on the right side of the block, they will have to reinvent themselves, and right now if that doesn't happen, Smutrich won't be quick to join the dying party. If it is not possible to make primaries due to the short schedule, the National Union will request a joint vote in the party centers, about 1,300 members and joint membership. Another suggestion on the table is a huge poll in which religious Zionists will select their favorite candidates or alternatively plunge dominant personalities into key parties in the party, to prove that fresh blood is flowing in the system. Sources in the Jewish House recently contacted former Shas chairman Eli Yishai to try to recruit him to the party, but it is unclear where the National Union members are headed. Everything is still open, but the train carrying the Jewish home is currently speeding toward the cliff, and no stops are in sight.