Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir publicly squabble over electoral strategy

The Israeli Prime Minister and one of his far-right coalition partners are publicly arguing about strategy for the upcoming general election, with each suggesting that the other’s failure to listen will lead to the fall of current right-wing bloc which has led the country since 2022.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the longtime leader of the Likud party, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right “Jewish power” party, exchanged a series of public messages on Wednesday over social media, disagreeing about whether the latter should join forces with fellow far-right politician Bezalel Smotrich’s “Religious Zionism” party and fight the election on a joint ticket, as was done four years ago.

In a video released by Netanyahu on Wednesday with the caption “Ben-Gvir and Smotrich must unite for the sake of the right’s victory”, the Israeli Prime Minister was asked what Smotrich and Ben-Gvir should do.

“They must join together”, Netanyahu responded.

“Every time that we are united, we win; when we are divided, we lose.”

He went on to talk about the 1992 election, when he described the Right as “like today; larger than the Left, but because it was split into three we lost”, saying this had led to the “Oslo [Accords], Arafat, Hamas”.

בן גביר וסמוטריץ׳ חייבים להתאחד למען ניצחון הימין! pic.twitter.com/Ariq9URU1F

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) August 27, 2026

Under the Israeli electoral system, parties must receive at least 3.25% of the overall vote in order to gain any seats in the Knesset. Smaller political parties seen as holding broadly similar views therefore often form a joint ticket for the purposes of the election in order to maximise the chances either of clearing the electoral threshold or gaining the largest number of seats possible, before splitting again after the election. Such a strategy is not seen as in any way unprincipled; Israel’s Joint List, for example, is a united ticket of a few different Arab parties who come together for this purpose at elections, while Israel’s Labor party was widely condemned for having failed to unite with the Meretz party for this purpose ahead of the 2022 election – the parties have since formally come together under a new name; “The Democrats”.

The upcoming election is seen as a particularly significant one for the future direction of the country. While no party in Israel’s history has won an outright Knesset majority, the opposition party that is perhaps seen as the biggest threat to the current coalition is Yashar, formed earlier this year and led by a former IDF Chief of Staff, Gadi Eisenkot.

Itamar Ben Gvir responded to Netanyahu , saying: “Prime Minister, I didn’t understand your video” and accusing him of an “attempt to weaken the Jewish Power party in order to form a national government with Eisenkot”, which he described as “neither right wing nor nationalistic.

“You know the data and in-depth research just as well as I do. We spoke several times in recent weeks”, Ben Gvir said, claiming that the polling showed that unifying with Smotrich’s party would cause the Jewish Power party to lose 2-4 seats.

“The Land of Israel is at stake. The People of Israel are at stake. The State of Israel is at stake”, the far right politician claimed.

“I will do everything so that you do not form a government with Eisenkot! Only a right-wing government!!!”

Netanyahu responded by saying: “Ben Gvir, don’t bring down the Right…Are you saying that I want a ‘weak Jewish Power’ because I’m calling on you to unite with Smotrich? The opposite!”

The Israeli Prime Minister went on to claim that, contrary to what Ben Gvir stated, polling showed that ‘a technical bloc of Ben Gvir + Smotrich = a strong party that will strengthen the right-wing bloc and not waste right-wing votes. Smotrich is on the verge of the electoral threshold. If you don’t unite with him, we’ll get a left-wing government of Eizenkot with Yair Golan and the Arab parties.”

Echoing Ben-Gvir’s own rhetoric, the Israeli Prime Minister went on to say that: “The Land of Israel is at stake. The People of Israel are at stake. The State of Israel is at stake. I can’t believe that because of personal whims you’re willing to risk the country. Make the right decision – it’s time for unity!”

The Prime Minister’s oldest son, Yair Netanyahu, also criticised Smotrich, saying: “All the polls show that Smotrich is on the verge of the electoral threshold. That means [unless you unite with him] you’re willing to take a gamble, and play Russian roulette with the fate of the country, and topple the right-wing bloc and crown a Muslim Brothers government—Eisenkot—Yair Golan, just because you hate Smotrich?”

The Israeli election will be held in late October.

This morning, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that he was “inviting Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Minister Bezalel Smotrich to meetings on Sunday. We must not waste a single vote; we must unite to save the right-wing bloc!”

Smotrich himself kept out of the public disagreement, posting only that “it’s time for unity and responsibility in the national camp.”