Responding to concerns that Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu is doing his best to diminish the power of his biggest coalition partner, Religious Zionism/Otzma Yehudit, and has been using Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri as his tool to divide and conquer the religious Zionists in his future coalition government (Report: Netanyahu Asked Deri to ‘Demand’ Finance Ministry, Denying It to Smotrich), Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir issued a statement saying they agreed on maintaining their joint bloc ahead of coalition negotiations.
The two leaders committed their full backing of each other regarding entering the coalition, restoring governance and personal security, carrying out the necessary reforms in the justice system, strengthening Jewish identity, and attaining ministerial positions that would help them implement the demands of their parties.
The two parties announced they would not enter the coalition without each other.
“More than half a million voters chose us to bring change and we are committed to them,” the two leaders said.
