The far-right Religious Zionist Party (RZP) will not aim for political alliances ahead of the next elections and does not intend to run together with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in the elections, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told The Jerusalem Post in a Wednesday interview, laying out his plans for the party in the next government.
Recent polls have shown RZP just passing the electoral threshold and receiving approximately five seats ahead of the upcoming October 27 elections.
Smotrich said that he believed his party could be successful running alone and did not consider Ben-Gvir as a partner for a joint run.
“I think that right now the Religious Zionist public can and should run on its own as a big, strong, significant party,” Smotrich told the Post.
In the 2022 elections, RZP ran with the far-right Otzma Yehudit Party, led by Ben-Gvir.
RZP head Smotrich says that he doesn’t need to run with Ben-Gvir in 2026
“I proved, over all the recent years, that I know how to act responsibly, so that the National Camp wins,” Smotrich said.
When asked if he regretted running with Ben-Gvir, Smotrich said he did not.
“The fact is it [the alliance] brought 64 mandates, put me as finance minister, and brought the National Camp [led by Netanyahu] the victory, after four election campaigns, and then a left-wing government with terror supporters,” Smotrich said.
He added that he remained a partner of Netanyahu and had not resigned from his government during the term, though Ben-Gvir did.
“Ben-Gvir resigned and came back. I, on the one hand, stayed as a responsible [partner]. On the other hand, I also knew how to draw red lines,” he said.
Smotrich to ‘Post’: I would have done many things differently during the war
When asked if there were mistakes made in the government’s past term, Smotrich said that “during the war there were many things that I thought at some point I should have done differently.”
“And that’s fine; in the end, I only have seven seats. I said before that I have enormous influence, but I’m not prime minister,” he added.
RZP currently holds seven seats in the Knesset. Smotrich is also the head of the Settlements Administration, a Defense Ministry body established in 2023 that manages matters in West Bank settlements and advances construction and housing in the area.
The far-right minister’s statements calling for West Bank annexation often draw sharp international condemnation, as well as criticism for harming Israel’s global standing.
The party has received recent criticism as most of its members of Knesset supported contentious haredi (ultra-Orthodox) legislation that was recently passed in the Knesset, which opponents argue encourages draft evasion even amid the IDF’s severe manpower crisis.
Smotrich said that his stance was that haredim should be enlisted in the IDF, and if his party is part of the next coalition, it would attempt to come up with a “framework to draft haredim.”
“I’ll promise them that I’m going to draft haredim, and I’ll persuade them that the way to do it is by consent, that the haredi leadership will give legitimacy, and then there’ll be a national program that works to draft haredim, it’ll be a process, but at the end of it, the haredim will enlist in the army, and integrate into Israeli society.”
Smotrich also said that he viewed the haredi parties as coalition partners in the next government, and that he planned on following Netanyahu’s political camp.
Smotrich sharply criticized opposition party leaders in the bloc seeking to replace Netanyahu in the upcoming elections, such as Yashar Party leader Gadi Eisenkot and B’Yachad Party leader Naftali Bennett.
He said that Eisenkot would “set up a left-wing government that will evacuate settlements [in the West Bank], and push for a Palestinian state.
“Look at [opposition leader Yair] Lapid and Bennett and also at Eisenkot, who are already conducting talks today, about how you roll it back, do a ‘delete,’ undo, all that we’re doing this term,” Smotrich said.
He added that he believed the opposition and Yisrael Beytenu leader MK Avigdor Liberman would be unable to form a government without Ra’am Party (United Arab List) leader Mansour Abbas and left-wing Democrats Party leader Yair Golan.
When asked about the cost of living, which data have shown has risen in the country, Smotrich said he had attempted to lower the rates through measures such as enacting a controversial reform of the country’s dairy sector, which did not receive enough support from the coalition.
“The cost of living is an enormous challenge; the only way to solve it is competition, competition, competition,” he said.
Smotrich said the party would seek to continue its work in the next government, to “work quietly, thoroughly and professionally, and to do good things for the State of Israel and the People of Israel.”
