BICOM

Members of the Jewish Home Party, which polls indicate could be the third largest party in the next Knesset, will vote today to decide the party’s list of parliamentary candidates.

Jewish Home is the successor to the right-wing National Religious Party, which historically operated as a mid-sized political force. However, since Economy Minister Naftali Bennett was elected to lead the party in November 2012, Jewish Home has seen a renaissance as Bennett has sought to expand its support beyond the party’s traditional religious Zionist power base. Current polls indicate that Jewish Home could increase its current share of 12 Knesset seats to as many as 15 or 16, becoming the third largest faction.

The party’s 77,000 members will vote today in 119 polling stations across the country. In total, 42 candidates are hoping to secure a realistically electable slot on the party’s slate. Four of the top 17 slots are reserved for women. Bennett will head the list, followed by Housing Minister Uri Ariel, whose Tekuma faction, considered on the religious right of the party, also has the ninth, fourteenth and eighteenth slots reserved for its candidates, who were selected last week.

Bennett can himself appoint people to the third, sixth and eleventh slots on the party list and he has already announced that one will go to journalist Yinon Magal. Bennett will likely hope to see a strong showing of non-religious candidates in order to boost the likelihood of wider public support. One such candidate with high hopes in today’s poll is Ronen Shoval, who founded the Im Tirzu organisation which has actively campaigned against what it views as left-wing attempts to undermine the State of Israel. Another secular candidate who will expect to secure an electable slot is Dani Dayan, a well-known figure and former-head of the Yesha Council of settlements who recently left Likud for Jewish Home. His defection may encourage some pro-settlement voters to back Jewish Home.