Baruch Marzel and Bentzi Gopstein may have been banned, but Otzma Yehudit is forging ahead nonetheless. The Jewish Press recently spoke to Dr. Adva Biton, who is number 2 on the party’s list.
The 39-year-old Biton has a PhD in chemistry and is the mother of six. A seventh child, Adelle, was critically injured in a rock-throwing terror attack in 2013 and died two years later.
The Jewish Press: Why did you join Otzma Yehudit?
Dr. Biton: To save the right-wing government. Otzma Yehudit is not afraid to say things in a clear voice – just like I try to do – so I found my place in that party.
The leaders of the Oztma Yehudit party are followers of Rav Meir Kahane. Do you adhere to his teachings.
Rabbi Kahane was a hero and a true Jewish leader. Nonetheless, not every bill that he proposed would I propose today, and I do not necessarily agree with every action he took.
Many people say voting for Otzma Yehudit is risky because it may not pass the election threshold. What’s your response?
We are rescuing the right. The last published poll shows that Otzma is on the brink of reaching the minimum threshold. We just need another 10,000 votes. Now more than ever, the public understands that only with Otzma Yehudit will a right-wing government rise. Otzma’s four mandates fill up the 61 mandates for the right-wing bloc.
I travel around the country to appear in parlor meetings, and I receive outpourings of encouragement and support. People understand that many of the candidates in the rightest bloc sat in the previous coalition which gave protection money to Hamas, allowed terror to go unpunished, perpetuated the insufferable situation in the south, hemmed and hawed when settlements were destroyed, and allowed the media and the Supreme Court to control government policy.
The time has come for a change – a real change. That’s why the Knesset needs Otzma Yehudit.