Habayit Hayehudi leader and current head of the United Right Rabbi Rafi Peretz announced on Sunday that he has agreed to give New Right leader Ayelet Shaked the top spot in their forthcoming political union. The sides are currently engaged in hashing out the technical details of the union.
"I am happy to announce I spoke with Ayelet Shaked a few minutes ago, and we've agreed Ayelet will head the union of the parties of the right, out of national responsibility and concern for a right-wing government and religious Zionism," Peretz wrote on Twitter.
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"Unity is a common goal for us all," he said.
Prior to the union announcement and following several hours of negotiations, the sides still were still discussing four main points of disagreement. The first and most significant, as first reported by Israel Hayom, pertains to the number of Knesset members allotted to each party – up to the ninth slot on the joint Knesset list. The New Right party wants four slots for itself and five for Habayit Hayehudi – which for its part thinks New Right should only have three spots. The issue, according to New Right, was a red line.
Another significant demand revolves around the issue of recommending the next prime minister. While Peretz wants the joint list to only consider recommending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Shaked and New Right co-founder Naftali Bennett would like to adhere to the formula of "recommending a right-wing candidate who promises not to establish a unity government with the Left."
Shaked and Bennett reportedly fear Netanyahu could form a government with the Blue and White party.
Two other demands, relatively minor in nature, were Peretz's desire to refrain from attacking Netanyahu during the election campaign; and for the coalition talks following the election to be conducted together. Shaked and Bennett are reportedly amenable to Peretz on those matters.
"As you've seen and heard, we're moving toward unity," Shaked said entering the meeting with Peretz. "I believe in it and have been working on this for quite some time now."
