{"id":213716,"date":"2026-09-03T20:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T20:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/213716\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T20:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T20:04:14","slug":"unity-partys-gilad-erdan-seeks-alliances-to-cross-election-threshold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/213716\/","title":{"rendered":"Unity Party\u2019s Gilad Erdan seeks alliances to cross election threshold"},"content":{"rendered":"

The newly formed right-wing Unity party has been considering political alliances to boost its chances of clearing the electoral threshold ahead of the deadline to submit lists next week, party leader and former ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan<\/a> told The Jerusalem Post in an interview Thursday as he laid out party plans ahead of the upcoming election.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still do believe that once we show the public a few parties together that are already above the political threshold, it will give a real boost to people to vote for us because they will know almost for sure that the vote is not going to be wasted,\u201d Erdan said.<\/p>\n

Erdan spoke to the Post as his Unity party<\/a> has been failing to pass the electoral threshold on its own in recent polling.<\/p>\n

There have been numerous reports that Erdan has been considering a merger with Blue and White<\/a> leader MK Benny Gantz or with Chili Tropper\u2019s Zionist Home-The Reservists party, both of which have also fallen below the threshold in recent polling.<\/p>\n

Erdan and the second candidate on his list, Yuli Edelstein, are both former Likud members. The party has positioned itself as a right-wing party<\/a> calling for universal IDF conscription.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz leads Blue and White, which is polling below the electoral threshold. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM\/THE JERUSALEM POST)<\/p>\n

The emergence of a group of small right-wing parties comes amid growing tensions over the issue of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) conscription and dissatisfaction among some right-wing voters with the existing parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s coalition.<\/p>\n

Erdan says the country needs a broad government<\/p>\n

Erdan told the Post that the country requires a broad government, capable of bringing together both sides of the political spectrum rather than relying on narrow coalitions with extremists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m positively confident that there are many people who have had enough of the divisions from narrow governments and from the fact that one side only wants to destroy or topple the other side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that division does not \u201cbring any real solutions to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t change the daily life of the Israelis who suffer because they have to go so many days to do their reserve time in the military or pay the high cost of living in Israel or see us without any agreement on a real judicial reform that is so needed,\u201d Erdan said.<\/p>\n

Erdan seeks unity rather than committing to a Netanyahu-led government<\/p>\n

Asked whether he would be willing to join a government led by Netanyahu, Erdan said his party was seeking unity rather than ruling out either side of the political spectrum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what really the people of Israel need, especially after October 7.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be the political force that will demand bridging and connecting the two political sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erdan said that he would not boycott other parties but would require them to abide by a set of principles they have established. This would also determine whether he would be able to support a government led by Netanyahu or leading rival candidate Gadi Eisenkot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want any radical party to have veto power or an influence, a strong influence on the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The principles laid out by Erdan included \u201cNo withdrawals, no Palestinian state, a real conscription law that only those who serve two years or more in national service or military can get all the benefits from the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever doesn\u2019t serve or decides not to serve doesn\u2019t get anything,\u201d Erdan added.<\/p>\n

Erdan noted that after October 7, non-domestic issues such as the establishment of a Palestinian state were no longer matters that divided parties as they had in past elections \u2013 since there was now general agreement against it.<\/p>\n

He said that this too allowed for more unity.<\/p>\n

Issues to tackle: cost of living, enactment of a judicial reform, and national service<\/p>\n

Erdan added that a broad coalition would be necessary to tackle issues such as the cost of living, enactment of a judicial reform, and national service, as political stability would allow for a \u201cgovernment that is stable and cannot be blackmailed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s the main principle that we\u2019re trying to agree upon with the other parties that we\u2019re negotiating with. And if they meet these principles, then ego is not going to be the problem from our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erdan also criticized the government over Israel\u2019s international public diplomacy efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know firsthand all the failures of our government, and \u2013 I am saying it with a lot of sadness \u2013 Netanyahu truly abandoned this arena.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that, currently, Israel was being \u00a0branded abroad internationally \u201cas a pariah, as baby killers, as an apartheid state, or as committing a genocide or starving our enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edran said that he planned on investing billions into improving Israel\u2019s public standing and repairing such views.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The newly formed right-wing Unity party has been considering political alliances to boost its chances of clearing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16469],"tags":[244,37713,27708,37819,20210,89603],"class_list":["post-213716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-blue-and-white","tag-gilad-erdan","tag-israel-elections-2026","tag-likud","tag-unity-party"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117208905572422229","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}