Netanyahu: Unite the Right or Risk Losing Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a stark warning on Sunday: the survival of the State of Israel hangs in the balance ahead of the October 27 election, and the failure to unite the right-wing bloc could hand victory to those who would weaken the Jewish state. Speaking on Channel 14, Netanyahu urged former general Ofer Winter to meet with him immediately, cautioning that Winter's new People of Israel party could either waste critical votes or drag a fellow right-wing party below the electoral threshold.

Why Netanyahu is pushing for right-wing unity now

With a September 8 deadline to finalize party slates, Netanyahu has so far failed to broker alliances within his camp. The stakes are existential: under Israel's proportional representation system, any party receiving less than 3.25 percent of the vote is wiped out, and every wasted vote is a gift to the opposition. Netanyahu made his case directly to Winter, saying,

“Let's meet, let's talk. Immediately. To prevent a situation in which a party like this brings down the bloc.”

Winter, a former general and one-time military secretary to Avigdor Lieberman, rejected the prime minister's overture. In a statement, he insisted his party “doesn't work for anyone, only for the people of Israel,” and blamed the current government's policies, including what he called failures in security leadership, for endangering the right-wing camp.

Winter's challenge to the right-wing establishment

Launching his party in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Winter presented a hawkish security platform aimed at appealing across Israeli society. He pointed to the October 7 failures, the entry of hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza, and the failure to draft the ultra-Orthodox as reasons why new leadership is needed.

“There is only one genuine possibility for change in the right-wing camp and in general: new people who had no part in the failures of October 7,” he said.

Lieberman welcomed Winter's entry into politics, and when asked if Netanyahu should be worried, he quipped,

“Fearful people should go to the doctor. There is medication against paranoia; they should take it.”

Ben Gvir and Smotrich: ego versus responsibility

Netanyahu also renewed his push to reunite Itamar Ben Gvir's Otzma Yehudit with Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism, which ran on a joint slate in 2022 and won 14 seats before splitting. Netanyahu offered Ben Gvir reserved spots on the Likud list if he would join forces with Smotrich, but Ben Gvir refused.

“When Smotrich was high, and he was low, Ben Gvir called on him to put aside his ego and unite, and Smotrich did the responsible thing. Today Ben Gvir needs to do the responsible thing,” Netanyahu said.

Meanwhile, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef launched a blistering attack on Ben Gvir over his visits to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism and the location of the Biblical Temples. Ultra-Orthodox halacha forbids ascending the Mount in our time due to its sanctity.

“The great rabbis of the generation made a decision. That's it. Start listening to the great rabbis. Who do you think you are?” Yosef demanded.

Netanyahu: Eisenkot would establish a Palestinian state

Turning to his chief electoral rival, former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu accused him of opposing Israel's entry into Rafah, the seizure of the Philadelphi Corridor, and expanded operations against Hezbollah. Netanyahu warned that an Eisenkot-led coalition, dependent on Yair Golan, Lieberman, and Mansour Abbas, would lead to disaster.

“They will immediately leave Lebanon. They will leave Gaza. They will leave Syria. And they will establish a Palestinian state here. And that will be the beginning of the end of Israel. We will go into free fall,” he said.

Eisenkot has repeatedly ruled out a two-state solution, telling Israel Hayom,

“Anyone who is thinking about a two-state solution after October 7 is just delusional.”

His Yashar party fired back at Netanyahu, accusing him of lying and of fearing a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 failures.

Poll shows right-wing bloc short of majority

A new Kan news poll shows both Religious Zionism and People of Israel passing the electoral threshold, but Netanyahu's coalition would secure only 48 seats, rising to 52 with Winter's support, still far short of the 61 needed for a majority. Eisenkot's Yashar leads with 24 seats, followed by Likud at 21. The opposition bloc, excluding Arab parties, would clinch 55 seats.

As the Jewish people have done throughout our history, we must rise above ego and division. The prophet Zechariah taught us, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit” (Zechariah 4:6). Now is the time for unity, for responsibility, and for faith in the eternal covenant between God and the people of Israel. Am Yisrael Chai.