After last Thursday’s defeat over a technicality of a proposal to hold in-house appointments to the next Knesset elections in the party’s central committee (the Thursday vote was seven votes short of a quorum), Habayit Hayehudi has been experiencing its second tailspin since the resignation of Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, Makor Rishon reported on Monday.
Last Thursday, the party director general Nir Auerbach failed to push through the resolution to let the central committee decide the appointments. Auerbach’s associates said it appeared that party members had decided to “commit suicide.” More likely: Auerbach became Persona non grata to some members when it turned out he had been in on the Bennett-Shaked parlor trick.
In recent days, an identical proposal has been submitted, which will apparently be brought to a vote this Thursday as the central committee re-convenes. Is approved, the committee would then appoint the party chairman and the woman who would be running in third place, and the rest of the list would be cobbled by the committee on February 3.
As soon as Habayit Hayehudi decides who would be at the top of its list, it would open negotiations with its partner, the National Union, on deciding who gets one of the “real seats.” The two parties will probably position their candidates using the zipper method.
The combined faction is expected to score anywhere from not crossing the threshold of 3.75% of the votes – to six seats, which most observers and pollsters deem to be sheer fantasy.
MK Nissan Slomiansky last week announced that he would not run again, leaving the “realistic” number 2 spot on Habayit Hayehudi’s list to MKs Moti Yogev and Eli Ben Dahan.