The chairman of the Otzma Yehudit Party, MK Itamar Ben Gvir, spoke on Sunday evening at an election conference in the city of Bat Yam in front of about 500 participants, and commented on the talks for a joint run with the Religious Zionism Party, headed by Bezalel Smotrich. "I love him very much, I appreciate him very much, but unfortunately, the feeling is that Bezalel does not want to run together," claimed Ben Gvir. "The insulting proposals he made are not new. I am working towards unity." Ben Gvir added, "This evening I say to Bezalel Smotrich - I want there to be unity, if there is unity, we are ready to give up many things, but there are several things we will not give up on: The people of Israel, the Land of Israel and the Torah of Israel. We are on a journey to save the people of Israel. And with God's help we will save the people of Israel." The comments come as Smotrich and Ben Gvir have been conducting negotiations on a joint run in the elections for the 25th Knesset, though they have yet to reach an agreement. Despite the announcement by Religious Zionism that the negotiations are conducted in a friendly manner and all the briefings are by parties with an interest in sabotaging the negotiations, the gaps between Ben Gvir and Smotrich are still large. On Sunday, the Israel Hayom newspaper reported that Ben Gvir is ready for a full merger of Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit into one party. That is, Ben Gvir does not propose a technical alliance, but rather a complete unification into a joint new party, with joint leadership of Smotrich and Ben Gvir, a joint mechanism, a joint secretariat, a joint CEO and party institutions, and an equal distribution of spots in the slate of the new united party. Officials in Religious Zionism said in response to the report, "It is a pity that there are those who prefer to conduct the negotiations in the media and harm the public's trust. We will continue to do everything quietly and in the closed room in order to reach unity and bring real tidings to the public as quickly as possible." Related articles: Brooklyn event featuring Itamar Ben-Gvir cancelled Ben Gvir during Mimouna: Take out Hamas, rip them to shreds PA outraged: Ben Gvir encouraging Jewish visits to Temple Mount 'A-G and Ronen Bar are trying a targeted elimination against me'