Shaked has 10 days to whip right-wing parties into bloc

Former Justice Minister Ayalet Shaked has challenged all the parties right of Likud to form a bloc under her leadership for the September election. Lists must be submitted by Aug. 1. Shaked and Naftali Bennett’s  New Right party failed the cross the Knesset threshold when they first ran in the April election. Fellow right-wing parties, Habayit Hayehudi led by Rabbi Rafi Peretz, Kahanist Otzma and Moshe Feiglin’s Zehut, will be tough negotiators, especially if Rabbi Peretz is asked to cede the top slot of the bloc to Ayelet Shaked. Latest polls show Shaked with 6-8 Knesset seats if elections took place today, whereas the right bloc under her lead has the potential for 12-13 seats. Either way, she may hold the key to a future coalition government headed  by Binyamin Netanyahu.