Veteran Jewish Home activist quits Religious Zionism, joins Lieberman's Yisrael Beytenu
Veteran Jewish Home activist Reuven Gur-Arieh, formerly deputy head of the Samaria Regional Council, has announced that he is leaving the Religious Zionist camp and joining Yisrael Beytenu, led by Avigdor "Yisrael" Lieberman. The move comes two weeks after reports that Bezalel Smotrich had violated an agreement with the Jewish Home, and after the party concluded that its place in the Religious Zionist framework had been blocked.
In a letter to friends, Gur-Arieh said he was ending his activity in the Jewish Home and Religious Zionism after "a long process of political and moral disillusionment." He said the decision came amid major changes in his family and pointed to the severe injury his son suffered on the Lebanon border about a year and a half ago. He wrote that he had spent four years working "day and night" to achieve an historic union between the Jewish Home and Religious Zionism, holding long discussions with Smotrich, Religious Zionism CEO Yehuda Wald, Jewish Home CEO Yigal Dinno, and Hagit Moshe.
Gur-Arieh said he never sought anything for himself, "not a role, not power and not a personal commitment," and that he represented only the people who sent him. He said the effort failed because "the other side refused to honor the agreements we signed," adding that he felt he had grown tired of pleading with Smotrich to keep his promises. He described the situation as the end of the Religious Zionist party, saying Naftali Bennett began a process that undermined the idea of a broad national-religious party, and Smotrich "buried that idea for good." He also cited internal moves such as the boycott of Nir Orbach after he lost the party leadership race and later joined Yamina's coalition with Mansour Abbas.
Gur-Arieh ended by saying he did not expect his friends to follow him automatically to Yisrael Beytenu, but asked for mutual respect. He said that after the elections he hopes to serve as a bridge reconnecting the mainstream of authentic Religious Zionism. The article notes that Yisrael Beytenu has recently attracted more religious-Zionist figures, including Batya Kahana-Dror in the 2015 primaries, Givat Shmuel Mayor Yossi Brodny in 2021, and reservist Lt. Col. Shmuel Brazili, and suggests Gur-Arieh may not be the last.
