Bennett: Netanyahu will move to Left after elections

Bayit Yehudi leader strikes back at PM after 4 days of Likud attacks on him, warns Netanyahu planning leftward shift.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Bayit Hayehudi's Naftali Bennett 390 (photo credit: YouTube Screenshot)
Bayit Hayehudi's Naftali Bennett 390
(photo credit: YouTube Screenshot)
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.”
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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.”