UTJ signed an historic document this evening, in an effort to sway right wing non-Haredi voters to vote UTJ.

UTJ has been negotiating with leaders of groups of "Chardal" and Dati communities to try to get them to vote UTJ instead of Yamina, Otzma Yehudit, Noam or any other party. These leaders have been looking for an alternative, as they are not happy with Yamina because of what they consider the Dati element being swallowed up by Bennett and Shaked and being in a much weaker position, Noam and Otzma likely not passing the threshold, and no other real option.

As part of the agreement winning the support of Rav Dovid Chai Cohen, UTJ signed a document stating that UTJ does not support and is not interested in, God forbid, any withdrawal from parts of Eretz Yisrael, and will follow this policy as per the decision of the Council of Sages. (There were other details to the agreement as to what UTJ will do in order to get their support, but those aren't the focus here.)

After UTJ agreed to the conditions and signed the agreement, Rav Dovid Chai Cohen will tell his supporters to vote UTJ. Presumably, UTJ will use the agreement to turn to other right wing voters as well who might not be happy with Yamina or afraid to waste votes with Itzma and try to woo them.
sources: Behadrei, Kipa, Israel Hayom

Interestingly, UTJ did not get the Council of Sages together to come to a decision and to give instructions before signing such a monumental and significant agreement. At least, there are no reports of any such meeting or series of consultations and individual decisions and instructions to this effect. Until now, even if such policy were in place, which it was not (Rav Shach supported territorial compromise if it was felt the peace agreement would save lives), it was vague and not-explicit, at best. To turn this into official policy without a major meeting of the Council of Sages? Very strange

In recent elections, Benjamin Netanyahu has famously targeted the voters of right wing parties such as Habayit Hayehudi in the final days of the campaign and each time decimated them, leaving them with far less than polls had predicted and making the Likud a larger than predicted party. Other parties, such as Yemin Hechadash, missed the minimum threshold (at least partially if not entirely because of this). The slang for this has become "drinking their mandates" with a big straw.

Yet, in all those recent elections, Netanyahu did not take the same tactic with the Haredi parties and never targeted any campaigning directly to their voters. They supported him fully and he returned their loyalty by not decimating them the way he decimated others. I don't know if that is why he did not target their voters, because while they have other choices (while Habayit Hayehudi really doesn't) they still were unwavering in their support for Netanyahu , or if it was for others reasons, but he did not.

In a video for the campaign (at the 1:55 mark) yesterday Netanyahu spoke about the need to vote for the Likud. He explained that there is no such thing as "two votes" and voting for one party and essentially voting for Netanyahu, but if you want Netanyahu you have to vote Likud. He gave an example of people thinking they can vote Shas and that is also a vote for Netanyahu, and he rejected it and said you have to vote Netanyahu if you want Netanyahu and not for any other party.



This is very directed at Shas, besides for them being mentioned explicitly in name, as they have been campaigning, this election and last, at a vote for them also being a vote for Netanyahu, as if there are two ballots. Others have expressed their support for Netanyahu, even unwavering support, but nobody else has spoken about the two ballots and a vote for them being a vote for Netanyahu as Shas has.

Shas is upset about this, but nobody "owns" voters in an elections, and while they might think they own them and nobody else has a right to campaign to them, that is not the case. They just need to make a better case to Shas voters to stay with Shas (and UTJ to stay with UTJ, etc) than they needed to previously.

So, is this a change in policy? it seems Netanyahu has given up on the expectation of forming, or drive to form, a government based on the right bloc? It seems he expects that the right bloc will not achieve the minimum of 61 needed for a government and it is unlikely that Lapid and Gantz will split allowing him to bring in Gantz with the right bloc. So, his only tactic would be to forgo the attempts of 61 right wing mandates and instead once again focus more on being the largest party, even at the expense of the bloc, and then he would be able to form the "unity" government with Gantz/Lapid and other parties willing to join.

Another option is that this is retaliation of sorts and a warning. It seems that Shas is "drinking" the voters of Moshe Kahlon and Orli Levi Abuksis away from the Likud. The Likud thinks those voters should not naturally vote Likud but Shas is targeting them with a social-right campaign and attracting them. Because Shas is campaigning to potential Likud voters, Netanyahu is basically saying I can target Shas voters just as well.

It turns out the accusation thrown out by Netanyahu at others, a vote for x is a vote for Gantz, is now on him as well - a vote for Netanyahu will be a vote for Gantz. The converse takeaway is that Netanyahu is contradicting himself. If there are not, even conceptually, "two votes", a vote for Lieberman is not a vote for Gantz just like a vote for Shas is not a vote for Netanyahu.

According to reports, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that the State Department is looking into a possible policy change.

The State Department is considering changing its policy regarding the registration of passports for people born in Jerusalem. With the USA having moved its embassy to Jerusalem, many were hoping it would also lead to a change in this policy of only mentioning "Jerusalem" in the passport without the name of the State, Israel. The State Department refused to change its policy or consider it. Now Pompeo is saying that they are looking into possibly changing it to say Jerusalem, Israel.

That is big news!

I will not go first to the Haredi parties [to join a potential coalition]. I am against extortion. We will first turn to the Likud, in order to establish a government based on the secular majority in Israel.

  -- MK Benny Gantz (Kachol Lavan), about what direction he will take in forming a government after winning the upcoming elections

this is monumental as until now Gantz has repeatedly said he plans to form a government with the Haredim as part of his coalition. Either he has accepted the reality that the haredim won't join his government (as long as Lapid is part of it), or he is moving in this new direction, perhaps because of Lieberman

formerly these were the Fountainheads..

another great Bibi election ad