Erdan and Edelstein to Launch New Right-Wing Party on Thursday

Former Likud minister Gilad Erdan, who served as public security minister and ambassador to the United Nations, and Yuli Edelstein, a former Knesset speaker who quit Likud after two decades, announced Wednesday that they will formally launch a new right-wing party on Thursday. Edelstein, slated as number two, will lead its drive for equal national service and the enlistment of yeshiva students. The list casts itself as a liberal-right faction in the emerging 'third bloc,' calling for a broad Zionist unity government and pledging not to join a narrow government of either camp. Erdan said the party would not sit in 'a narrow government of anyone.' Benny Gantz and Ayelet Shaked are not part of the still-unnamed venture.