Bennett: Bayit Yehudi must be ready for elections

Party leader says faction must decide how to select MKs for next Knesset in case government falls apart and elections are advanced to next spring.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett (photo credit: REUTERS)
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Bayit Yehudi must decide already how to select its MKs for the next Knesset in case the government falls apart and elections are advanced to next spring, party leader Naftali Bennett said in closed conversations with his faction’s MKs this week.
Channel 10 reported on Tuesday that Bennett told the MKs the coalition could unravel in the fall when the Knesset returns from its extended summer recess in October, and that the party had to prepare for the possibility of elections in March or April.
The context of Bennett’s remarks was his attempt to pass major changes in the party’s constitution as soon as possible. He wants the support of the MKs when the constitution is brought for an upcoming vote in the party’s central committee.
Bayit Yehudi’s constitution committee, led by Rabbi Danny Tropper, has been working on the draft for months. Based on the hope that Bayit Yehudi will one day become a ruling party, the constitution decides what would happen if the party leader were to form the government and how the party’s ministers would be selected.
The party’s leader and Knesset list would be elected in primaries. The party leader can choose two candidates of his own in the top 10, while two top-10 slots must be reserved for women, and one must be held for a candidate of the central committee’s choosing.
“Bayit Yehudi is starting to think big,” said Senior Citizens Minister Uri Orbach. “We thought of ourselves as a party of only three to four seats for too long. If we think big, we will be big – with God’s help, of course.”