Hagit Moshe, the new head of the Bayit Yehudi party (formerly the Mafdal party) has decided that her party won’t run for a seat in the upcoming elections for the 24th Knesset. After turning down a generous offer from Bezalel Smotrich (National Union), Moshe announced earlier in the day that her party would run independently.
Then, in a surprise move, Moshe announced on Thursday evening, that Bayit Yehudi would not be running at all, but would instead give its support to Naftali Bennett and his Yamina party. Naftali Bennett was the head of Bayit Yehudi until he broke away from them.
In exchange for their support, Bennett, if in a position to do so, will give Hagit Moshe a ministerial position. Hagit will also allow Bennett the use of the Bayit Yehudi’s “Bet” voting symbol in the voting booth.
Subsequent to that announcement, Channel 20 ran a phone interview with Moshe where she then declared that she supports Benjamin Netanyahu as the next prime minister, which is definitely not the preferred position of Naftali Bennett and his Yamina party.
Admittedly, there are candidates that have jumped parties so often they don’t always remember which party they are currently running with at the moment, so Moshe can be forgiven for not yet being on the same page as the new party she is now supporting.
It’s difficult to say yet if the move will help Bennett and/or hurt Smotrich, and whether or not the Bayit Yehudit membership will be happy with Moshe’s decision.
Since its founding, this will be the first time that the Mafdal/Bayit Yehudi party is not running and won’t have representation in the Knesset.