Former ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan announced Friday that his fledgling Unity Party will not run in the upcoming October 27 Knesset election after weeks of polls showing that it would not cross the electoral threshold.
The move comes amid a flurry of activity by parties and politicians to finalize their slates ahead of the Tuesday deadline, after which parties will be unable to take their names off the ballots.
Both the current coalition and the opposition bloc opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are scurrying to ensure that smaller parties and factions unite ahead of the deadline to prevent the possibility of them failing to cross the 3.25 percent electoral threshold and wasting their votes, something that has in the past had dramatic effects on the outcome of the vote.
Erdan’s Unity was one of several small parties pushing the message of joining the central factions of each bloc, but he acknowledged his message had not caught on.
“I founded the Unity Party a few weeks ago because I believe that Israel needs a broad Zionist government that can pass a real conscription law and resolve disputes,” Erdan said in a statement announcing the move.
