Gilad Erdan and Ayelet Shaked announce they will not run in upcoming election

Gilad Erdan and Ayelet Shaked will not run in Israel’s upcoming election, saying the political reality has made their vision of a broad unity government difficult to advance.

Erdan, who chairs the Unity Party and previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said he was withdrawing the party after concluding that it was unlikely to cross the electoral threshold. Attempts to merge with other parties in the unity bloc had also failed.

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Throughout my life, I have served the people of Israel and the State of Israel.

He said he established the party because Israel needed a broad Zionist government capable of passing a genuine conscription law and resolving disputes. The “terrible massacre of October 7,” he said, and the heavy price paid by Israeli citizens should have prompted a change in direction.

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Leadership also means recognizing reality as it is and acting responsibly, and I believe we must ensure that the votes of our supporters influence the election results and do not go to waste.

After about a month of campaigning, however, Erdan said most Israelis appeared focused mainly on deciding who should serve as prime minister. The need for a broad unity government was not high on the public’s list of priorities, he said. He described withdrawal as a responsible decision intended to ensure that supporters’ votes would influence the results rather than be wasted.

Shaked likewise said she had hoped Israel’s political reality would change after October 7. Instead, she said, the system was returning to “the same patterns of camps and boycotts,” with two blocs that, in her view, were tearing the country apart. The supplied article ends before completing her comments on the alternative she sought.

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Unfortunately, it appears that even in the upcoming election, the political system is returning to the same patterns of camps and boycotts, with two blocs that, in my view, are tearing the country apart.