The National Religious Party, the nation's second oldest party, made political history on Monday, by merging with two other right-wing parties, the National Union's Moledet and Tekuma, under the banner 'Uniting in a new path: Putting education first.'

MK Tzvi Hendel announced the decision at a press conference, heralding the new party as one that will put education first during a "crisis of values in politics and in every field in this country."

"The public understands that education is the foundation of everything," Hendel said.

Addressing specifics, Hendel said that the merger erases the individual party lists which existed before, thus requiring primaries to determine the new leader.

"We decided to cancel all four parties and found a new one," he said. "We are losing Mafdal, Tekuma and Moledet. The election system will be new. We are holding open primaries for the first time on a national level for our leader."

"Anyone who identifies with our path can join and decide who our leader will be," Hendel said, adding that "everyone is invited to the party except for the extremists who are happy when they see Arab bloodshed or happy when they see settlements evacuated."

Speaking about who will be included in the top ten on the party's list, Hendel said that there will be a minimum of two "non-kippa wearers," four people who weren't in the previous lists of the parties and two women.

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