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Amitai Porat, former CEO of the Religious Kibbutz Movement and son of Rabbi Hanan, will be number three on the ‘Zionist Spirit’ list.
Hendel, Shaked and PoratHezki Baruch
In a press conference on Sunday, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel announced that Amitai Porat, a member of the Religious-Zionist community who until recently served as the CEO of the Religious Kibbutz Movement, will be joining the ranks of their Zionist Spirit party.
Porat is the son of the late Rabbi Hanan Porat, one of the rejuvenators of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. Porat will be in third place on the party’s list in the upcoming elections, after Shaked and Hendel.
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At the press conference, Porat stated: “I’m delighted to be joining the ‘Zionist Spirit’ party today, the home of Religious Zionism and the value-driven right. Today more than ever we need to bring back the Zionist spirit, the pioneering spirit, the uncompromising confrontation with the issues that face us and the State of Israel. We need to bring back a spirit of unity.
“The goal that we Religious Zionists have taken upon ourselves is to be a bridge that can connect all parts of the nation,” he added. “As a man of the Religious Kibbutz Movement, I’m here to promote the values of agriculture, settlement, and rural spaces.”
Porat also told Israel National News that in his opinion, “A national unity government needs to be Zionist in nature, and this is the only basis for a stable government.
“If there is one photo that can sum up the Right’s Zionist spirit, it’s the picture of Rabbi Hanan Porat whose face was lit up while singing on the hills of Shechem,” stated party director Ayelet Shaked. “In the photo, Hanan Porat and Rabbi Moshe Levinger are being lifted on the shoulders of people who chose to work to realize the vision of settling the Land, the vision of loving the Land. They took a generations-old idea and realized it. They didn’t wait for someone else to do it, they didn’t tell stories and they didn’t makeup excuses.
“I know that a great amount of this spirit comes with Amitai Porat to the ‘Zionist Spirit’ and the third generation of the Etzion Bloc pioneers,” she added. “He’s not a talker; he’s a doer.”
Shaked also mentioned her party’s descent in recent polls, saying, “There are those who look at our size in the polls, but if there’s one phrase that accurately describes our strength, it’s the phrase that became the title of the weekly paper that Rabbi Hanan Porat published: ‘A little light defeats a great deal of darkness.’ Thank you, Amitai, and all of your friends who will follow you to the Zionist Spirit.”
Communications Minister Hendel also congratulated his party’s newest member: “Amitai Porat is a fighter, a farmer, and a Zionist leader. The Religious Kibbutz is a symbol of those things and Amitai was the CEO of the movement. His roots begin in his father’s home, but the results come from him. He is joining the Zionist Spirit, not for any specific appointment or promise, but because this community deserves representation.
“Sane, normal, reasonable people deserve a political home in a party that connects and does not reject,” Hendel added. “For all those who love Israel, love the Jewish People, and love the state, your home is here where you have a just representation.”
Hendel continued: “We don’t represent ourselves alone, but a Zionist story. A story of connection and beliefs. We won’t convince anyone who doesn’t believe in the Zionist story to vote for us, but we will fight for every vote from the sane right-wing, from the Religious-Zionist community, from all those who see the State of Israel as the beginning of the redemption and believe that the Jewish People is greater than what we see in politics. Thank you for joining us, Amitai.”
Hendel also told Israel National News that in his opinion, just scraping over the electoral threshold is not enough for him. “We will be the surprise of the elections and a vital part of them too,” he insisted.
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