On July 4, the extreme right-wing Jewish Power Party launched its election campaign, centered on the slogan “This Time We Won’t Compromise.” Heading the party of the late nationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane’s followers is former Knesset member Michael Ben Ari, whom the high court banned from running in the last election in April on the grounds that he has incited to violence. However, the high court authorized the candidacy of attorney Itamar ben Gvir, although his views and ideological acts accord with Ben Ari’s views and actions. 

In his speech at the launch conference, Ben Ari wondered what is racist in the demand to transfer all the Arabs from the “earth of the land of Israel,” as he called it. “We want to resettle our enemies in their countries,” he said. “They said that’s why they disqualified me, they told me ‘why did you say that.’ … I said that we’ll give them water, a sandwich and we’ll find their countries of origin. … They told me that it’s racism.” 

With the “No Compromise” campaign Kahane’s acolytes wish to fix the mistake, as they see it, of the alliance with HaBayit HaYehudi and the National Union on the list of the United Right, which received five seats, and left their representative, Ben Gvir, outside of the Knesset. As one might recall, it was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who forcibly pushed Jewish Power into the arms of HaBayit HaYehudi and the National Union in order to prevent a loss of votes on the right, and thus legitimized a racist party until then considered despicable. 

Jewish Power’s independent campaign launch was undertaken following the sense that the chairman of the United Right, Minister of Education Rabbi Rafi Peretz, has learned from the partnership with Kahane’s students and understood the enormous damage done to the list by running with them. On the morning of the conference it was reported that Peretz is not interested in including the right-wing extremist Baruch Marzel of Jewish Power on the United Right list for the September elections. Jewish Power argues, however, that their agreement to run with HaBayit HaYehudi and the National Union on a joint list in April’s election was what saved these two parties from defeat and won Peretz and National Union leader Bezalel Smotrich ministerial roles and places in the Security Cabinet.