By David Israel • September 2, 2026
Jerusalem, 2 September, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is urging right-wing parties to unite ahead of the September 8 deadline for submitting candidate lists for the upcoming elections, warning that parties that fail to cross the electoral threshold could weaken his bloc’s representation in the Knesset.
Netanyahu has already welcomed an alliance announced Tuesday between Religious Zionism and Zehut, the party led by former Likud MK Moshe Feiglin. Recent polls have projected the joint list to win around seven Knesset seats, compared with the one to two seats Zehut had been projected to win on its own.
The deadline for submitting candidate lists opens on the afternoon of September 6 and closes on September 8. Netanyahu is expected to continue urging his allies and potential allies to reach agreements before the deadline.
“When we unite, we win. When we split up, we lose. It’s simply a law of nature,” Netanyahu said Sunday on The Patriots, a popular right-wing political program in Israel.
Before the Religious Zionism-Zehut agreement, Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit was the only party further to the right of Likud consistently polling above the electoral threshold, with surveys projecting it to win five to seven Knesset seats.
Meanwhile, retired Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter’s new Amcha Israel party was polling at around four seats, roughly level with Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism. Both parties were therefore polling close to the electoral threshold, which stands at 3.25% of valid votes.
Zehut, meanwhile, was polling at around one to two seats.
Ben-Gvir has rejected calls to merge Otzma Yehudit with Religious Zionism. On Friday, he said the two parties “will not run together,” calling the decision “final and absolute.”
Winter has also rejected Netanyahu’s efforts to bring Amcha Israel into an alliance.
Winter has argued that Israel’s leadership should be replaced over failures leading up to the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. At the same time, he has said Netanyahu “is the only person we will recommend” for prime minister.
About 6.8 million Israelis are eligible to vote in the October 27 election. Parties must receive at least 3.25% of valid votes to win Knesset representation; votes cast for parties that fail to cross the threshold are not included in the distribution of Knesset seats.
