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Israel’s United Right party not united at all

Rabbi Rafi Peretz and Knesset member Bezalel Smotrich, leaders of the United Right party, are each pushing coalition negotiations in another direction.
A Right Wing Union election campaign banner depicting Rabbi Rafi Peretz and Betzalel Smotrich is seen near a Benny Gantz's Blue and White party election campaign banner in Jerusalem April 7, 2019. REUTERS/Ammar Awad - RC1790A47480
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Official coalition negotiations are slated to start April 28, and the United Right party expects to receive two ministerial portfolios. Despite their efforts to present a united front, the two future ministers, Rabbi Rafi Peretz and Bezalel Smotrich, are on a collision course with no obvious escape route. The United Right party was established shortly before the April 9 elections, in February 2019, uniting HaBayit HaYehudi, National Union-Tkuma and Israel Power factions. Now this alliance, which was the end product of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s concerted efforts to consolidate the religious right, seems unlikely to remain united.

In fact, Peretz and Smotrich have little in common. Had Netanyahu not brought them together to save votes on the right, they never would have found themselves sharing the leadership of the same faction. Peretz is a former helicopter pilot, a brigadier general in the reserves and former chief rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces. He represents the classic religious Zionist movement, committed to the state and its institutions. He was elected head of HaBayit HaYehudi after Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked left the party, and now heads the United Right.

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