With only a week-and-a-half to go before the deadline for parties to submit their candidate slates ahead of the October 27 election, many of the smaller, recently established parties competing on the right have yet to come to any agreements on mergers or technical alliances, raising the possibility that none of them will garner enough support to enter the Knesset.

Speaking with The Times of Israel on Wednesday at his home in the upscale coastal neighborhood of Herzliya Pituach, former Likud lawmaker Yuli Edelstein, one of the founders of the right-wing Unity party, predicted that any such political moves could only be expected to take place at the last moment.

“I’m honestly telling you, the negotiations will happen in a week from now, something like that. Not just us; all the parties will really start talking when push comes to shove,” he said.

These delays have proven deeply concerning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who that evening issued a public appeal to voters not to support smaller right-wing parties that may not pass the 3.25 percent electoral threshold in the election, warning that it could destroy the current coalition’s chances of retaining power and lead to the election of a “fascist regime.”

“Whoever doesn’t pass the electoral threshold is wasting their votes. Whoever does pass will take down an existing party,” Netanyahu warned again a day later, following the launch of controversial former IDF general Ofer Winter’s People of Israel party.

Addressing the plethora of small factions on the right competing with Likud, Netanyahu had a single message: “Leave, or unite with the existing parties.”

Netanyahu’s appeals highlighted concerns on the right that the field has become overcrowded by an influx of new parties started by disaffected nationalist politicians and first-time hopefuls, collectively known as the Third Bloc, whose stated aim is to force a compromise with the opposition and create a broad Zionist unity government.

The premier has reason to worry, with a recent poll by The Times of Israel showing Winter’s pro-Netanyahu party receiving six seats while pushing Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism party below the electoral threshold and........

© The Times of Israel