Netanyahu calls Ben-Gvir, Smotrich to Sunday talks in bid to unite right-wing bloc

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday called National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to meetings on Sunday, stepping up his efforts to unite two of his most controversial coalition partners ahead of the October election.

"I invite Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Minister Bezalel Smotrich to meetings on Sunday," Netanyahu said. "Not a single vote must be wasted, we must unite to save the right-wing bloc!"

Netanyahu has repeatedly urged Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit and Smotrich's Religious Zionism parties to run on a joint ticket, warning that parties on the right failing to cross the 3.25 percent electoral threshold could cost his bloc the election.

The appeal was swiftly rejected by Otzma Yehudit, which said its decision not to run jointly with Religious Zionism was "final and absolute" and that it would hold no talks or meetings on the issue. The party instead called for smaller right-wing factions at risk of falling below the threshold to unite, or for Smotrich to be given a reserved spot on the Likud slate.

The dispute comes amid growing concern on the right over the proliferation of competing parties ahead of the election. Recent polling has shown Smotrich's party in particular struggling to clear the threshold, while former IDF general Ofer Winter's newly launched People of Israel party has drawn support from a similar pool of right-wing voters.

Separately, Channel 12 political correspondent Amit Segal reported Friday that Smotrich is in advanced talks with former Likud lawmaker Moshe Feiglin, chairman of the Zehut party, over the possibility of the two parties running together.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir ran together in the 2022 election as part of a technical alliance before splitting into separate factions after entering the Knesset.