Every once in a while, discussions of possible party mergers become known to the public. We generally want to see the various religious parties merging and working together for the common interests. Whether it is specifically the haredi parties merging with each other and the dati leumi merging with each other, or whether it is all the religious parties merging into one large bloc - including all the haredi parties and all the dati leumi parties together.

Can it even work?

According to various news reports, the Bayit Yehudi (formerly NRP) and National Union parties are in merger discussions. They want to maximize the National Religious power, and that cannot be done as a couple of small splinter parties. If they would merge, and together hold 8 seats, in the future voters would look at them differently - as a medium sized to large party and perhaps give them more votes than people give to small parties, thus garnering even more power.

But can it work? Bayit Yehudi is a more diverse party, dealing with issues involving all aspects of governance and the State, while National Union is more of a one-issue Land of Israel party. Bayit Yehudi is a fairly liberal party - try to attract all the dati leumi, and there are a wide range of beliefs and worldviews in the DL world just as there are in every community, while NU is a more conservative, some would say extreme, right wing party.

What will happen when Netanyahu wants to give land away to the PA? The BY faction will say it is important to work against it from within the government, and the NU faction will insist on exiting the government to fight it from outside.

Other scenarios would present similar issues. Obviously these are issues that, if a merger is to work, need to be discussed in advance and set as to how such situations will be dealt with.

I hope they can make it work, and find solutions for these potential flareups, because the hamon am would really benefit from a unified party.