Just before last April’s election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forced the radical-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party into the wavering arms of Rabbi Rafi Peretz, then-chairman of the religious right United Right party. By doing this, Netanyahu granted legitimacy to the violent, often feral disciples of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, making them an inseparable part of the right-wing bloc that he so wanted to strengthen.
The merger of Otzma Yehudit with the other right-wing parties came to an end in the current election campaign. The leaders of Otzma Yehudit realized that they are deemed undesirable by at least some leaders of the religious right, so they decided to take advantage of the publicity and legitimacy, which Netanyahu offered them in April, and attempt to pass the voter threshold on their own.
