Ayelet Shaked reveals secret dealings on her political future

Shaked wrote her supporters in a WhatsApp group on Saturday night, asking them to remain patient.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Ayelet Shaked (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Ayelet Shaked
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The mystery over the political future of former justice minister Ayelet Shaked widened over the weekend, when she told a WhatsApp group of her supporters that plenty was going on behind the scenes that was not being made known to the public.
Shaked initially sought to run with Likud in the September 17 election, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to give her a reserved slot. She has since been in touch with the Union of Right-Wing Parties and the New Right, and was also wooed by Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman.
When a supporter of New Right wrote in the WhatsApp group that Shaked was harming herself by waiting too long with her decision, she gave a revealing answer.
“I am not waiting, despite what people think,” she wrote in the Sayeret Shaked group. “There are political processes taking place that must be completed quietly.”
Shaked wrote to her supporters in the group on Saturday night, asking them to remain patient.
“Gather your strength, because the mess will begin in a short period of time,” she wrote. “No campaign has started yet at the moment. I promise to inform you, as soon as the direction will become more clear.”
URP head Rafi Peretz has offered Shaked the second slot on the list. Her associates said she would insist on heading the list, because polls have found she would bring the list more mandates.
New Right leader Naftali Bennett convened supporters on Thursday, but Shaked – who was second on the New Right list that did not cross the threshold in the April 9 election – did not come to the meeting. Another meeting of New Right activists is set for Wednesday in Tel Mond.