I support Naftali Bennett!

The writer is a Bayit Yehudi Central Committee member.

By JEREMY SALTAN
Naftali Bennett makes post-election speech 370 (photo credit: TOVAH LAZAROFF)
Naftali Bennett makes post-election speech 370
(photo credit: TOVAH LAZAROFF)
On January 22, 345,985 people voted for the Bayit Yehudi party led by Naftali Bennett, leading to an impressive 12-seat showing. It was the continuation of the revolution that started when 53,875 people signed up last summer to become members of Bayit Yehudi.
Some 1,080 of those people were chosen as Central Committee members when the party elected its Knesset list in November.
I have heard a lot of criticism from our voters toward Bennett and the coalition negotiating team.
There are many people who don’t understand why we didn’t take the Likud “deal” and are worried that we might end up in the opposition. I’d like to assure our voters that Bayit Yehudi wants to be in the coalition, and we are working toward that goal.
So far, we have been offered portfolios with no related substance. A portfolio isn’t worth much if you don’t know its budget or the government guideline policies on the related issues. Livni chose to sign a deal, and in her joint press conference with Netanyahu we heard nothing of the budget or the government guideline policy of the ministries she accepted.
Bennett held a televised event Wednesday night asking Netanyahu to treat us as real partners. Our platform is not a secret, and the issues matter more to us than the portfolios.
Wednesday afternoon, the Bayit Yehudi Central Committee voted on a number of internal issues. The votes became a sort of confidence vote. I wrote a letter to my fellow committee members asking them to allow our chairman to lead, reminding them that a large part of leadership is trust, and we should trust our leader. Despite a small minority that responded negatively to my letter, Bennett received the trust of the Central Committee by a large margin.
I now ask that the voters of Bayit Yehudi grant Naftali Bennett and his team the same trust that they received from our Central Committee. I believe with all of my heart that he will lead us to the coalition, most importantly on the right terms. Let’s not get caught up in the spin.
I trust Naftali. How about you?
The writer is a Bayit Yehudi Central Committee member. He served as English- speaking campaign manager for Bayit Yehudi in the recent elections.