Uri Orbach. In top five
Photo: Tomer Barzide
Uri Orbach joins Habayit Hayehudi
New right-wing party's public council offers journalist fifth place on Knesset roster; Orbach accepts. Council to present list of candidates Wednesday night on backdrop of threats from rabbis to spilt from movement
Journalist Uri Orbach decided Wednesday to join the new right-wing Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) party.
The party's public council offered Orbach one of the top five slots on its Knesset roster, and the journalist responded positively.
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The members of the council, headed by General (Res.) Yaakov Amidror, convened in Sderot to compose their list of candidates for the Knesset, and plan to present the list Wednesday evening.
According to estimates, Orbach, who writes for Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth and broadcasts on Army Radio and Channel 2, will be given the fifth place on the list. The roster also has secured places for women, a secular candidate, and candidates from the periphery.
Orbach told Ynet he hoped the experience he has gained in his years as a journalist and publicist will be expressed during his post as a legislator.
"This is definitely an interesting challenge," Orbach said.
Meanwhile, rabbis and activists affiliated with the new party's right-wing section have argued it was completely ignoring the public's desire for "candidates with a hard right line" and threatened to split and form a new right-wing party.
An announcement published by the Ramot Shapira Forum, that includes some 50 rabbis and activists from the party's right-wing section, said the results of the online vote were not presented to the members of the public council, even thought the party promised to consider the public's will.
"In the party's elections that were held on the website by the general public, it was clear that candidates with a hard right line (former National Union Party members) got much more support than candidates from the National Religious Party," the forum said.
The activists demanded their council members abstain from participating in Wednesday's meeting, if its heads do not present the results of the online vote.
