The appropriate word to describe the course of Netanyahu's placements in Likud is "strategic". At least at the level of intention. Not the casting of "stars", but the pursuit of a more distant goal, which eliminates the Jewish Home, as the default party of religious Zionist voters and perhaps of sectarian-religious parties in general.
This should be seen as part of a process that has already developed in Likud - and also in other parties such as Yesh Atid - of a growing presence of religious Zionists in "secular" ruling parties.
But the Likud is the only one with a distinctly right-wing, national, traditional worldview, so it is significant that right-wingers wearing knitted caps find their home in the Likud, and not in one of the parties identified with the sector.
Netanyahu not only reinforces this trend with his placements, he also chooses placements that for many close the debate between the Likud and the Jewish Home.
Shikli, Silman, Saada, Yossi Fox, who will join Aldstein, Tali Gottlieb, Karai, Amit Halevi: these are figures whose characteristic is a clear sectarian identity alongside a broad national outlook.
Some of them also represent the kind of administrative-judicial agenda that large parts of the right yearn for.
What is being founded before our eyes is the knitted division in Likud, which can quickly become the clear and first party option of the religious-nationalist right - if Likud knows how to cultivate this option, without also alienating voters with a secular-liberal agenda.
This is a new challenge to Yakudi, but one that can resolve the crisis of trust that has arisen between the traditional Mizrahi public in Israel and parts of religious Zionism, who preferred to break the historical alliance and establish a government with the left and the secular middle class between Ramat Aviv C and Ra'anana.
The block returns to itself
Two days until the closing of the lists, and in the religious Zionist party they have almost raised their hands.
MK Avi Maoz, a member of Noam's party, the third leg in the Smotrich-Ben Gabir connection, was outside the list and prepared for a separate run. This meant a loss of several tens of thousands of votes to the right-wing bloc. Ben Gabir and Smotrich refused to assign a realistic seat to Noam. Maoz, in accordance His rabbi, the head of the Har Hamor Yeshiva Rabbi Zvi Tau, who represents the ultra-Orthodox movement in religious Zionism, decided to withdraw from the connection with the party leaders and refused to compromise on a real-skeptic or real-Norwegian position.
Then the phone rang in Rabbi Tao's office.
The opposition leader Netanyahu was on the line. The two held polite talks and discussed attempts to find a compromise. The talks were warm and friendly, but led to an impasse. When it became clear that the non-frontal talks were going nowhere, Netanyahu asked to come to the rabbi's house and meet him, an unusual request when it comes to Netanyahu. The rabbi Tao accepted the request but made it clear to the Likud chairman that he does not guarantee that the visit will change his mind.
Rabbi Zvi Tao, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
The two met and analyzed the situation, and concluded that the victory of the right is more important than anything.
Rabbi Tao agreed to demote Avi Maoz to the 11th place on the list of religious Zionists, and to waive most of the demands due to the size of the hour.
Although the meeting was unusual, those who follow Netanyahu's activities to fortify the bloc and ensure its unity before the closing of the lists, did not find themselves surprised.
From the pool in Caesarea, where Ben Gvir's children frolicked while Netanyahu was conducting the talks for unification between him and Smotrich, through vigorous activity in front of the heads of the ultra-orthodox parties and the rabbis, in order to bridge enormous gaps that had opened between the Hasidic and the Lithuanians - to the unusual meeting at the Har Hamor yeshiva.
Netanyahu got his hands in the mud, and reached the stage of closing the lists with all the bloc parties united and dramatically reducing the risk of wasting votes.
The right-wing bloc lost a precious month and a half in the internal struggles, the campaign was delayed, the messages were blurred and weaknesses were exposed.
Netanyahu's consolation is that he reaches the finish line with a strong and stable bloc behind him that accepts his leadership.
MK Itamar Ben Gabir, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Yair said to raise his hands
The one who lost on this level is the leader of the Joint Left bloc, Prime Minister Lapid.
Choreographers were brought to the Yesh Atid conference to train the audience on how to move while the leader steps to the podium, and the fans willingly complied, as is customary in the ruling party.
The rest of the bloc were less connected to Lapid's desire to dictate where they would move and with whom, and refused the Prime Minister's request to carry out the necessary unifications.
The most prominent refusenik is Merav Michaeli, who did not budge from her position not to unite with Meretz.
Michaeli recognized that it is not the good of the bloc that is in front of Lapid's eyes, but rather his desire to drink her party and Meretz too easily in the event of unification.
Those who grabbed less headlines are the parties that make up the joint list - Ta'al, Hadash and Balad - if they do run together, it will be a victory for the nationalist current among the Arabs of Israel, but one that could turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory. The Arab citizens also feel that the wave of nationalism has not allows them to develop on the civil level, and they may simply choose not to vote. One way or another, for the left bloc, the price of the united run of the joint list was that Hadash and Balad signed that they would not recommend anyone for the prime ministership, thus complicating Lapid who obliged the joint to satisfy a new government.
The joint list, photo: Gil Eliyahu/Gini
A bright spot for Lapid is Ahmed Tibi's refusal to sign the commitment of Odeh and his friends not to enthrone any person.
Tibi has his own summaries.
One of them is with Mansour Abbas's RAM party, including Tibi's becoming the fifth MK in practice on behalf of RAM, while focusing on civil issues - when sitting in the coalition was not ruled out by Tibi either.
Another agreement is with Lapid himself.
It is no secret that Lapid will rely on the joint venture if necessary.
He said so himself.
Shamrit Meir, Bennett's adviser, also revealed in interviews that there are summaries between Tibi and Lapid.
Tibi is the key and may recommend a torch, and may even be the 61st finger to guide it.
Ahmed Tibi, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Lapid, therefore, reached the closing of the lists in a problematic situation, and this is not even his biggest problem.
The outgoing coalition parties are waging an all-out war, some of their leaders attack Lapid explicitly, and only a few declare their loyalty to him as the undisputed leader of the bloc against Netanyahu.
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