Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett struck back at Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu after four days of Likud attacks on him Monday, warning that Netanyahu
intends to go to the Left after the January 22 election.
Bennett mocked
the Likud’s election banners he saw on his way southward to visit schools and
homes in Beersheba that were hit by rockets during Operation Pillar of
Defense.
He noted that when the operation ended he had called upon
Netanyahu to keep it going until the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip
fell.
“The world does not respect a country that does not protect its
citizens,” Bennett said.
“I passed signs that said the country is strong.
We are a strong country but we need Hamas to internalize that as
well.”
Bennett called upon Netanyahu to “say clearly without stuttering”
to the public in Israel and the international community that he takes back his
support for a Palestinian state.
Bayit Yehudi asked the central elections
committee Monday to prevent the Hebrew press from publishing anonymous
advertisements from Likud attacking Bennett. The appeal cited a law barring
parties from publishing anonymous ads.
In an interview with Channel 2,
Bennett said he was concerned that rather than form a coalition with his party,
Netanyahu would invite the Tzipi Livni Party and Yesh Atid into his next
government.
“Netanyahu prefers to have alongside him small weak parties
that do not have an impact,” Bennett said. “He wants to navigate by
himself.
It is important to us to have a hand on the wheel because I am
worried and I feel he is planning something together with Tzipi Livni, Yair
Lapid, etc.”
The Likud responded that “it is strange to hear
unsubstantiated claims from someone who never stopped attacking the Likud
government and the prime minister since he entered politics.”
Meanwhile,
one of Shas’s leaders, Arye Deri downplayed recent tension with
Likud.
“We will be in the next government with the Likud,” Deri said.
“Bibi will be prime minister. There is no alternative competing with
him. Shas will be in the government and Bibi knows it. There is no other
possible coalition. We’re fighting over mandates. It’s elections.”