Jewish National Front

The Jewish National Front (Hebrew: חֲזִית יְהוּדִית לְאוּמִּית, Hazit Yehudit Le'umit), commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew abbreviation Chayil (חי"ל), is a far-right, Orthodox religious-Zionist company (or party), based in Israel.

In January 2004, this party was founded by Baruch Marzel. For the 2006 elections to the Knesset, the Chayil party and Yamin Yisrael party, led by Professor Paul Eidelburg ran on a joint list with each other, but received less than the 2% minimum number of votes required to pass the threshold to receive representation.

The Leader of the Jewish National Front (JNF), Baruch Marzel, used to serve as representative of Kach, later on as successor to Rabbi Meir Kahane, he ran as #2 for Herut, founded by Kleiner and Begin, for the 2003 Knesset elections.

For the 2009 Israeli Legislative Elections, the Jewish National Front merged into ultra-Orthodox Jewish far-right party, Eretz Israel Shelanu, which in turn joined the National Union in Israel.

Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, representative of Chayil was given the fourth spot on the List, making him the first Kachnik politician to be elected after Meir Kahane and marking the first time a Kahanist party was represented politically.

Later on, the Chayil party parted ways from Shalom Dov Wolpo's political party Eretz Yisrael Shelanu, branding itself as "Otzma Yehudit".

The party called for a change in the country's electoral system so that Knesset members represent constituencies, rather than being elected on a party list system, as well as switching to a presidential system of government.^[1]

It also backed increasing Jewish immigration, limiting immigration of people who are not Jews according to Halakha, and strengthening Jewish education in public schools,^[1] and opposed a Palestinian state, citing the stance of Rabbi Chaim Zimmerman, who wrote a halakhic discourse entitled "The Prohibition of Abandoning Land in Eretz Yisrael".^[1]

• Neo-Zionism
• Kach
• Kahanism
• Otzma Yehudit
• Temple Institute

1. 1 2 3 Hazit: The Jewish National Front -- By Prof. Paul Eidelberg GalileeBlog, 7 December 2005