Israel’s right-wing parties are locking in their election lineups ahead of the October 27 Knesset vote. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has added Hebron spokesman Yishai Fleisher to Otzma Yehudit’s slate, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Zehut party leader Moshe Feiglin have submitted the final joint list of their technical alliance to the Knesset’s Central Elections Committee, an arrangement built to keep right-wing votes from being lost to parties that fail to cross the electoral threshold.
Ben-Gvir Places Fleisher at No. 12
Ben-Gvir has informed Fleisher, the international spokesman for the Jewish community of Hebron, that he will be placed at number 12 on Otzma Yehudit’s Knesset slate. Fleisher, who also serves on the Efrat Local Council, has built a public following advocating for the Jewish people’s rights to the Land of Israel, drawing on a YouTube audience of more than 300,000 subscribers and frequent appearances in international media, including a defense of Ben-Gvir on Piers Morgan Uncensored. In Hebron, Fleisher works to strengthen the standing of the Cave of the Patriarchs as a pilgrimage site and regularly brings journalists, public figures, and delegations from Israel and abroad into the city, alongside years of work restoring biblical and heritage sites.
Aliyah is another central focus of Fleisher’s public work. He was born in Israel to parents who had been denied permission to leave the Soviet Union, spent roughly half his life in the United States, and later returned to Israel as an oleh, an immigrant. In his role on the Efrat council, he works directly with new immigrants, connecting them to the community. He speaks Hebrew, English, and Russian and holds a law degree from the Cardozo School of Law in New York.
Fleisher’s placement is the latest in a run of candidate announcements from Ben-Gvir. He will head the Otzma Yehudit list himself, with Knesset Member Tally Gotliv expected to take the second slot, and Yitzhak Wasserlauf placed third. Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, son of Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, will be placed fourth, having pushed initiatives during his tenure on heritage preservation, the development of historical sites in Judea and Samaria, and the commemoration of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the Irgun, and Lehi. Ben-Gvir will place Chabad activist Yossi Goldberger, one of the founders of the Givat Lubavitch community spanning Kfar Chabad and Lod, ninth on the slate. Polling over the past week has placed Otzma Yehudit at seven to eight Knesset seats.
Smotrich and Feiglin Submit Final Joint List
Smotrich and Feiglin signed their technical bloc agreement on September 1, uniting the Religious Zionist Party and Zehut on a single slate while keeping each party’s separate identity, platform, and post-election path intact. Smotrich, whose party had been hovering near the 3.25 percent electoral threshold in recent polling, described the move as an effort to consolidate the national camp. “We are taking responsibility for the national camp, bringing forces together and ensuring that no right-wing vote is lost,” he said at the signing, adding that he hoped other right-wing figures would join the effort. “As far as I am concerned, this is the first partnership, but it will not be the last.”
Feiglin, who represented Likud in the Knesset from 2013 to 2015 before being pushed out over his outspoken positions and founding the libertarian-nationalist Zehut party, framed the alliance in similar terms, saying Zehut was founded to give Israel “a new spirit” rooted in hope, ideological conviction, and individual liberty. Zehut failed to cross the electoral threshold when it last ran in 2019 and had been polling below one percent ahead of the agreement.
The Religious Zionist Party’s central committee formally approved the technical bloc agreement on September 7 and authorized Smotrich to pursue further alliances ahead of the vote. Feiglin, for his part, has been careful to frame the partnership as strictly temporary despite past friction with Smotrich. “We are running in a technical bloc. We are a totally separate party from the Religious Zionist Party,” he said in an interview with 103 FM Radio, adding that the two parties would campaign separately and go their own way after the election. Asked about earlier tensions with Smotrich, Feiglin said he had let go of the past: “It is possible to forgive too. We are in the month of mercy and forgiveness, and I forgive, not just for show.”
The final joint list submitted to the Central Elections Committee places Smotrich first, Feiglin second, Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strock third, and Knesset Member Simcha Rothman fourth. Tzvika Mor, a former leader of the Tikva Forum, which has pushed for continued military pressure on Hamas rather than partial hostage-release agreements, takes the fifth spot on behalf of the Religious Zionist Party. Zehut’s candidates on the list include Rabbi Yitzhak Zaga in eighth place and Omer Patziniach Waldman, a reservist IDF officer who helped lead the Generation of Victory reservists movement following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, in tenth place.
Smotrich also welcomed Maj. Gen. (res.) Yossi Bachar, a Kibbutz Be’eri resident who defended his community on October 7 and whose mother was murdered in the massacre, to the party this week, though Bachar was not included on the final list. According to Ynet, he sought no realistic slot and asked only to express his support for the party.
