MK Hili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel announced Tuesday afternoon that they will run together in the next election. ynet reported last week that the two were close to finalizing an agreement. They are expected to issue a joint statement Tuesday evening.
Among the possible additions to their slate is Shira Shapira, mother of Aner Shapira. Another possible recruit mentioned is Elisaf Peretz, son of Israel Prize laureate Miriam Peretz, who lost two sons, Lt. Uriel Peretz and Maj. Eliraz Peretz. Elisaf Peretz himself has served hundreds of days in reserves since the start of the war.
Yoaz Hendel, Hili Tropper
(Photo: Oz Moalem, Yaron Brener)
Hendel, chairman of the Reservists’ Party, had until recently been holding talks with Benny Gantz and Dedi Simchi, but those negotiations collapsed. A source familiar with the details hinted that the talks were shelved because Simchi and Gantz refused Hendel’s demand that they publicly declare they would not sit in a coalition with the Haredi parties.
Political sources had said in recent days that the breakdown was not surprising, and that Hendel had been moving closer to Tropper, who left Gantz’s Blue and White faction amid the party’s collapse in the polls. Sources said the two may unite and could eventually join Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party.
Tropper left Blue and White in May, after having accompanied Gantz since the start of his political career. He had not hidden his view of the party’s future. At the end of November, he said: “I will not allow votes from the bloc to be burned.”
As long as the election campaign has not officially begun and the Knesset has not been dissolved, splinter parties are still moving through the political arena like satellite parties. As the election approaches, each side is expected to try to tighten its frameworks and ultimately prevent possible wasted votes.
The maneuvering around those small parties could prove especially dramatic, and at this stage most of the existing players themselves do not know what scenario they will ultimately run under.
Naftali Bennett and Gadi Eisenkot have both said on various occasions that when the decisive moment comes, they will turn more practically to “organizing the bloc,” including by arranging reserved slots or persuading candidates whose parties risk falling below the electoral threshold to withdraw.
They are not the only ones. On the right, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to make a similar effort once he is free to do so, after the Likud primaries and the formation of the party’s Knesset slate, expected to conclude in August.