To Unite the Nat’l Religious Camp, U.S.-Born Candidates Offer Themselves as a Sacrifice
Latest update: September 3rd, 2012
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Ari Abramowitz (far right) and Jeremy Gimpel (to the left of Abramowitz), candidates for the Jewish Home party's Knesset list, host Naftali Bennett (extreme left) and Minister of Science Daniel Hershkowitz, who are competing for the leadership of the party.
Photo Credit: Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel Knesset Campaign
In order to secure a good spot, candidates band together, cross endorsing each other to ensure mutual victory.
According to the strategist, the Jewish Home will have two rounds of voting. The first on November 6th for the party chairman, who will be number one on the list, and the second on November 13th for the rest of the list.
In the second round, members of the Jewish Home will be able to choose five candidates and rank their level of preference.
That means that if Bennett becomes the party chairman he will be able to endorse up to five others, no more. If he loses the race for chairman and has to compete in the second round, he will only be able to endorse four others aside from himself.
Currently the Jewish Home has three Knesset seats, while the National Union has four. Many polls and strategists predict that if they ran together they would receive a few more than they could running separately.
If they do run together, the arrangement will likely be that the parties would get alternate spots the list – odds for one, evens for the other.
But even together, there aren’t many positions available. Being number five on the Jewish Home list, for example, likely means being excluded from the Knesset. This makes the competition within the party – even among allies – all the more fierce.
Bennett is over extended, the strategist claims. He has to endorse MK Uri Orbach, the only Jewish Home MK who is not running for chairman and who has backed Bennett in the leadership race. Another is Ayelet Shaked who worked with Bennett when Bennett was Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister. The strategist named at least five more politicians Bennett will have to appease.
Therefore the strategist claims that Bennett needs to clear the way in order to make room for additional candidates so he can garner as much support as possible and fulfill all his commitments. Removing three of the National Union MKs would enable him to do that.
No Admission of Defeat
While the repeated and vague references in Abramowitz and Gimpel’s statement and e-mail message to not getting into the Knesset seem to indicate that the candidates may have lost confidence in their changes of success, their campaign manager, Jeremy Saltan, said the opposite was the case.
“We are very confident that at least one of them will get a secure spot,” Saltan said over the telephone. Saltan, who is also of American origin, says the campaign has built a base of thousands of new members who will vote for Abramowitz and Gimpel in the November 13 primary.
But “for them it’s about ideology and unity,” Saltan said. Therefore he says they are “genuinely and sincerely willing to sacrifice a place in the Knesset, if it comes to it, in order to unite the national religious camp.”
Practically, this would mean endorsing a candidate for the leadership of the party, even if that candidate could not necessarily provide Abramowitz and Gimpel the requisite support to ensure they receive at least one good spot on the list.
According to Abramowitz and Gimpel, a secure spot on a small list at a time when the national-religious camp is divided is just not worth it.
“The difference between one unified block and small independent parties is the difference between relevance and irrelevance during a time when the Nation needs to hear our voice more than ever before,” they said in the statement.
Disclaimer: The author is involved with the Likud party, but all information contained in the article was provided by independent sources from the Jewish Home and/or National Union.
tell a friendAbout the Author: Daniel Tauber is a frequent contributor to various prominent publications, including the Jewish Press, Arutz Sheva, Americanthinker.com, the Jerusalem Post and Ha’aretz. Daniel is also an attorney admitted to practice law in Israel and New York and received his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. You can follow him on facebook and twitter.
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3 Responses to “To Unite the Nat’l Religious Camp, U.S.-Born Candidates Offer Themselves as a Sacrifice”
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what a bunch of idiot children – that are unworthy of being in the Knesset in any party – this juvenile decade of squabbling cost Gush Katif, Amona and now Migron – all the politicians in this article are incompetent to the core – and should be ignored – as for the sacrifice of the "american" candidates – they are newbies with zero experience and a sophmoric understanding of politics – they are acting like messiahs to the right wing – they will neither bring unity or positive change – they are much like newt gingrich – no chance to win – but will sell more tickets to TNL in the future – this whole circus is sickening…
by the way the last quote is pure idiocy – there is NO difference – these right-wing fools will be irrelevant no matter what happens in future – and surely the "campaign manager" (rofl) is not being honest – of course young jeremy and ari got a bitter taste of right-wing kindergarten politics and would be wise to back out before the stain their outreach/media efforts well-done with this insane and misguided move into politics – for which they are neither qualified or comprehend the situation…
Ari and Jeremy have run an amazing campaign re-energizing the right wing parties and finally setting the bar higher for everyone running. They have once again, through their most recent statements, affirmed that that their only goal is to do what is best for Israel and the Jewish people. They have put the unity of the Zionist factions ahead of their own Knesset campaign success – basically stating that their own seat(s) is not nearly as important as a united Zionist front.
To you who posted the previous nasty comments – politics can definitely be a circus – but it seems you are the clown here, and you are the one who doesn't seem to comprehend the situation.