Zvika Klein
Jerusalem Post, Nov. 2, 2022
“We will amend the Law of Return and its different stipulations to reflect current trends in Israel and ensure Jewish continuity in the Land of Israel,” the RZP platform states.”
Both the Religious Zionist Party (RZP) and the Otzma Yehudit Party that joined it looked very similar on Tuesday evening after the polls offered that their joint list received between 14 and 15 seats in Tuesday’s election.
Party members on both sides were singing and dancing in circles while modern Jewish music was playing in the background, displaying signs of joy and pride. Although both parties are comprised of men wearing kippahs and tzitziot, they see themselves as very different from each other.
The shared list has doubled (and possibly more than doubled) its seats in the next government. The surge from seven seats to 14 or 15 will dramatically affect the likely right-wing government if they actually join it as a bloc of the two smaller parties that have joined forces with the support of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
RZP head Bezalel Smotrich ran in the list with Otzma Yehudit head and extreme right candidate Itamar Ben-Gvir, an individual with ties to Kach, a radical, Orthodox Jewish ultranationalist party that existed in Israel until 1994. According to polls, RZP will be the third-largest party in the upcoming Knesset. …. SOURCE