United Right changes name to kick off election campaign

The merger of three right-wing parties headed by Ayelet Shaked rebrands itself as “Yemina,” meaning “Right,” or “Rightward.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The United Right kicked off its September 2019 election campaign by unveiling its new name Monday night in front of hundreds of supporters at the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel in Ramat Gan: Yemina, which means “Right,” or “Rightward.”

The name change was made because it’s a catchier moniker, said the technical bloc that was only formed two weeks ago, which consists of the Jewish Home, National Union and New Right parties. It also succinctly presents the new party’s values and goals, according to its leaders.

“Yemina isn’t just a name – it’s also the essence,” said party head Ayelet Shaked. “Yemina is the direction we want to lead Israel…. Yemina is what the people of Israel want – and don’t really get.”

This is because the Likud is not really acting as a right-wing party, she said.

“The public is moving to the right but time after time finds itself being dragged to the left against its will,” she continued, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to form a government after the April elections with the Labor party. “Two months ago, everything was up for sale for [former Labor leader Avi] Gabbay and his partners. Gabbay’s gone but the threat remains. The threat of ideological liquidation is still here.”

“Over the past four years, we have proven that we are the only Right which is not afraid to turn its ideology into a working plan, and which doesn’t betray its values but translates them into actions,” she stated.

The new party name also encompasses the economic and social aims of the party, which are conservative and were enumerated in a loyalty pledge that the party’s prospective MKs signed onto last week. These include, as Shaked mentioned, “a free and flourishing economy liberated from the power of labor committees and the rule of monopolies.”

But the bottom line to the 43-year-old politician is that these elections present a stark choice to the Israeli voters.

“The public has learned lessons and realizes that if we want to survive, we must choose Yemina,” Shaked said, citing the 2005 disengagement, which led to the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, as a “disaster” whose consequences “continue to haunt us every single day.”

Ayelet ShakedGazaIsraeli elections 2019Yemina