While the Union of Right-Wing Parties passed the threshold, winning five seats, Otzma only held the seventh spot on the list, as their other representative Michael Ben-Ari was banned for incitement.
[30] Following the 2021 election, Ben-Gvir won a seat, with the deal considered to have brought the party into the mainstream of Israeli politics.
'Strength for Israel'),[33][34] on 13 November 2012 by MKs Aryeh Eldad and Michael Ben-Ari, who split from the National Union to form a new party ahead of the 2013 elections.
[39] Eldad, a secular hard-liner, and Ben-Ari, an Orthodox Jew and former Kach activist,[40][41] decided to form the new faction Otzma LeYisrael in October 2012, before the 2013 election, after months of infighting within the National Union, over if the party should hold primaries or not.
[20][13][14][21] Otzma Yehudit calls for a one-state solution, including the annexation of the West Bank and complete Israeli rule of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
[53] The party is against the formation of a Palestinian state, and advocates cancellation of the Oslo Accords, as well as for imposing Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
[56] In 2022, current leader Ben-Gvir endorsed deporting the Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh, as well as the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect, "on a train.
[58] While his party advocates for deportations, Ben-Gvir stated he was wrong when he held the position in his youth that all Arabs should be expelled.
[12] The party advocates what it calls "Jewish capitalism" as its economic system, and claims that its approach would save "billions of shekels from the reduction of the defense budget following the removal of the enemy", which would be directed at infrastructure development, reducing bureaucracy and regulations, as well as allocating resources to strengthen "weak populations".
[60] As part of a political merger with The Jewish Home, the party pledged to oppose price tag attacks.
Michael Ben-Ari also said that the party was unsure if it planned on competing in other elections, instead hoping to focus on extra-parliamentary activism.
[74] In February, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached out to Otzma Yehudit in an attempt to try and get the party to run on a list with Tkuma and The Jewish Home, leading to criticism from opposition Knesset members.
"[82] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's role in brokering the deal with Jewish Home was widely condemned; American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the American Jewish Committee preemptively announced that even if Otzma Yehudit entered the government, they would not meet with them.
[89] On 21 August 2019, Otzma Yehudit and Likud submitted an ultimately unsuccessful petition to the Supreme Court requesting that the Joint List be banned from contesting the September 2019 elections.
[90] On 25 August 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that Otzma Yehudit candidates Baruch Marzel and Ben-Zion Gopstein were banned from running in the September 2019 elections.
[91] On 26 August 2019, Likud representative Natan Eshel met with Ben-Gvir to urge Otzma Yehudit to drop out of the race.
Ben-Gvir and Noam head Avi Maoz urged The Jewish Home and the Religious Zionist Party to also unite with Otzma Yehudit.
[98] Ahead of the 2022 election, with Otzma rising in polls they sought to increase their representation within the Religious Zionist Party list.
[99][100] This caused the leader of opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu, to publicly encourage the list to reunite to avoid losing right-wing votes to the threshold.
[58] Otzma Yehudit and the Religious Zionist Party reunited and also included a candidate from Noam in a last minute move before the deadline for list submissions.
[104][105] The march started in Ara due to it being the village which Nashat Melhem was from, who was a terrorist responsible for an attack in Tel Aviv.
[117] In January 2018, Baruch Marzel and Michael Ben-Ari distributed Tigrinya-language flyers in Tel Aviv inviting refugees to the houses of Meretz MKs and left-wing activists.
[119][120] The protest occurred on 10 April, with dozens of activists attending; however, the police blocked the party from entering the city, although Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said that they were allowed to earlier that morning.
[127] In December 2012, Otzma LeYisrael ran an ad campaign on billboards and bus advertisements that included words in Arabic such as "equality" and "taxes".
[131] On 5 November 2023, Otzma Yehudit government minister Amihai Eliyahu was suspended from the Israeli cabinet for claiming that the use of nuclear weapons was "one of the possibilities" when discussing Israel's options in its ongoing military action in the Gaza Strip.
[132] On 14 January 2018, the party announced its plan to catch individuals throwing rocks at Jews in the West Bank, and to seek prosecution of the rock-throwers after submitting evidence to the police.
[135] On 31 January 2018, the party succeed in recording rock-throwers attacking Jewish youth who were planting trees at a Tu Bishvat festival.