In the wake of the launch of the Amcha Yisrael party, which will win eight seats according to an i24 poll conducted by the Direct Plus institute and push Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party under the threshold, strategist and pollster Shlomo Filber presented a different view.

In a post published on his X account, Filber wrote: “Some Facts About Smotrich/the Religious Zionist Party:”

• The Chardal-Torani-settler base is worth close to four seats.

• In addition, there are about 65,000 “first-time voters” who grew up in the state religious education system. That is another seat and a half that none of the pollsters are counting.

• These voters are the most loyal. Even Winter is not taking votes from them, but rather from the “lites” — those who for the past four years have refused to hear about Smotrich and have been grazing in other pastures.

• Religious Zionist voters have always been here, even as journalists, “commentators” and “pollsters” have been claiming for the past two years that they are “disappearing” and have faded away.

• This is one of the parties with the highest voter loyalty — second only to Likud and the Chareidi parties.

Filber added: “There are many in the sector who like to be condescending, mock others and, above all, set themselves apart. In most of the five election campaigns, the parties of those doing the mocking have, in practice, failed to create an alternative.”

“As of today, the Religious Zionist Party’s chances of being in the next Knesset are higher than those of the parties that purport to replace it.”

Filber added: “By the way, the parallel historical parallel for many years was the [far-left] Meretz party — a small, cohesive ideological core that influenced the shaping of the country far beyond its political strength.

“The only difference is that Meretz has no next generation.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)