But to the Likud, under Netanyahu, this appears to be a meal members are willing to consume out of political desperation. In the past, the party and its leader have defended LGBTQ rights. Her Knesset members have also left the room when racist far-right politicians took the floor.
Not anymore, it seems.
The potential kingmaker party, Yamina, led by Naftali Bennet, is also on the right. But Bennet’s personal rivalry with Netanyahu and ambition to take over the right, should Netanyahu ever be overthrown, means he won’t join a “pro-Bibi” electoral bloc for the time being.
With the Channel 13 poll predicting 11 seats, his party could bring Netanyahu’s alliance to 58. But for now, Netanyahu’s Likud strategists can’t count on that. So every right vote counts. To ensure this, Netanyahu forged the creation of microblocks. Parties must exceed 3.5 percent of the voting threshold to be able to count at all. Small parties can struggle to make it. By putting them together in groups that share a list of candidates and are tied to his coalition ticket, every vote counts.
According to the Channel 13 poll, the party bloc for religious Zionism, which includes Jewish power, will be given five seats. That would result in a Knesset seat for Itamar Ben-Gvir, a one-time devotee of the Kach movement in Israel who was banned as a terrorist organization in 1994.
At the time, he was a leading light of the Kach youth movement.
“The badge is a symbol and shows that since we have been able to get this symbol, we can reach Rabin,” he said.
Now Noam has joined the group – a religious party whose main reason seems to be homophobia.
Party leader Avi Maoz, who could also win a Knesset seat according to Channel 13 and other polls, had campaigned against same-sex adoption and in vitro fertilization for same-sex couples.
“A country that builds a healthy family with a father, mother and strong children is normal. A country where two fathers or two mothers are recognized as a family is not normal,” he added.
Israel’s left, desperate for a coalition to sack Netanyahu, is also made up of many small parties.
Meretz, a mainstream left party also hoping to draw the votes of ethnic Arab Israelis, whose traditional parties often get 10-15 seats, is predictably outraged by the latest pact on the right.
Nitzan Horowitz, the leader of Meretz, told CNN, “This party is homophobic, racist, advocates for Jewish supremacy, deportation of Arabs, this is medieval politics.”
“I am very sorry this is happening in my country. I am sorry that Prime Minister Netanyahu has an alliance with people like that. It’s neo-fascist. It doesn’t belong here,” he said.
But within the Likud party, even among LGBTQ activists, there is ambiguity.
Netanyahu has a long track record of supporting LGBTQ rights.
Loving someone should never mean a life of fear or terror. For too long the LGBT community around the world has faced violence and intimidation … in Israel, the LGBT community marches with pride. My unshakable belief is that all people are created equal … unfortunately, some elements of our society are not yet ready to accept the LGBT community. My pledge to you today is to continue to show respect for all Israeli citizens without exception, ” he said in a TV broadcast prior to Jerusalem’s gay Pride march in 2016, a year after a 16-year-old girl was stabbed and killed in the same event.
Eran Globus, a trainee lawyer who chaired the Jerusalem Open House for the havens for Pride and Tolerance for minorities, told CNN he was disgusted by the latest political pact made by the Israeli prime minister.
But when asked if this meant that the Likud party had lost its vote, he replied, “I think, like many Israelis after voting three times (in three general elections within a year), it is very unclear until now. the minute. you’ll get there. “
Likud spokesperson Eli Hazan summed up the calculation for Likud.
“I have to be willing to win in all circumstances. I don’t like this party. We don’t share anything with them except the will to win the election against the left wing.”