Noam Party Chairman Admits Election Failure, Vows Soul-Searching
Translated & summarized from Srugim by baba
Avi Maoz, chairman of the Noam party, admitted to election failure after his party received only 7,852 votes, far below expectations. He stated the party is analyzing its mistakes and trying to understand the gap between polls and actual results. Maoz also blamed a campaign against his party by other right-wing factions. Despite the outcome, he vowed the party would conduct a self-examination and continue its work on Jewish identity.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Noam party chairman Avi Maoz admitted election failure, receiving only 7,852 votes.
- Maoz expressed surprise at the results, acknowledging a gap between polls and reality.
- He blamed a campaign by other right-wing factions for his party's poor showing.
- Maoz conceded that supporters voted for the party's ideas but not for it.
- The party chairman vowed a thorough self-examination and continued work on Jewish identity.
Avi Maoz, chairman of the Noam party, sent a letter to party activists acknowledging a significant shortfall in election results compared to internal forecasts and campaign expectations. The Noam party ran in the 26th Knesset elections despite calls for it to withdraw, with opponents arguing its participation could siphon votes from the right-wing bloc. Preliminary results, after counting 91% of valid ballots, show the party received only 7,852 votes, falling far short of the electoral threshold.
Maoz expressed surprise at the outcome, stating that the party leadership was taken aback by the actual vote count in contrast to their predictions. He admitted that the party is still trying to understand the discrepancy between pre-election polls and the final results. "We still don't have answers to all the right questions you are asking us, and we are now engaged in deep thought to understand what and where our mistakes were," Maoz wrote.
While acknowledging the electoral failure, Maoz also blamed a campaign by elements within the right-wing bloc against Noam's candidacy and pressure for the party to withdraw. He rejected the notion that Noam's participation prevented the right-wing bloc from achieving a 61-seat majority, suggesting a broader crisis within the right. However, he conceded, "We did not succeed in translating the public's affinity for Noam's messages for Israel into actual votes. People supported us but did not vote for us, that is a fact."
Maoz suggested that the party might have erred in its data analysis, potentially overemphasizing certain data points. "We may have made mistakes. We may have given undue weight to certain data over other data, and we are now investigating all of this and trying to understand," he stated. Despite the disappointing result, Maoz urged activists not to despair, promising that the party would conduct a thorough self-examination and continue to promote its platform on Jewish identity. "We will deepen our soul-searching, our self-assessment, we will correct everything that needs correction," he concluded.
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