After his announcement of an independent run in the elections:
the chairman of Otzma Yehudit, Itamar Ben Gabir, prepared to add candidates to the list.
Israel Hayom has learned that Ben Gabir is recently considering offering a place on the list to Jonathan Pollard, the Jewish spy who immigrated to Israel about two years ago after a long prison term in the US. Ben Gabir even recently met with Pollard and in recent days he has been running his name in Otzma Yehudit's internal polls.
Ben Gvir was also prepared to add more names to the list and recently met with a number of military personnel, rabbis and influential women to examine the possibilities for designing the new list.
Ben Gvir
Making a list, photo: Sharia Diamant
The figures who have already secured their place on the list for the Knesset are the CEO of Otzma Yehudit, Yitzhak Wasserlauf, a resident of South Tel Aviv who is ranked second. After him will be Almog Cohen, a resident of Ofakim, an activist for the Negev and a former police officer.
The negotiations are stuck
Earlier this week, Ben Gvir announced that the negotiations between him and Smotrich had stalled.
Ben Gvir said that Smotrich demanded six places for himself and agreed to give only two of the eight to Otzma Yehudit.
On top of that, Ben Gvir claimed that Smotrich does not want people who are not classic national religious people and appeals to the voters of Ayelet Shaked.
Smotritz on the split from Ben Gvir: "Big mistake, risk wasting votes"
At the same time, Likud conducted polls to examine the merits of Ben Gabir and Smotrich running separately, but Netanyahu conveyed messages to the two to leave an opening for unity negotiations until the closing of the lists in mid-September.
During the week, the two exchanged mutual accusations in the media.
Smotrich said on Channel 2 that "Ben Gabir is making a kind of incitement against religious Zionism, trying to present it as arrogant and arrogant. I do not apologize for wanting a religious Zionist party. We are not only concerned with the issue of the Arabs and death to terrorists. There is a feeling that a month and a half ago he decided to run alone And since then he's been playing games. What did he do on the social issue, fight with Tibi?"
The strategy team at Otzma Yehudit decided to refrain from responding to the criticism.
According to them, in internal polls Ben Gabir was seen as the "responsible adult" among the parties.
Smotrich later apologized for his words.
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