Shaked hopes to ‘knock some sense’ into leaders to stop election

“They’re dragging the whole country to an election over four months,” Ayelet Shaked lamented.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Ayelet Shaked, former justice minister, speaks at The Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Ayelet Shaked, former justice minister, speaks at The Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Politicians must do all they can to prevent a third election in less than a year, New Right co-leader Ayelet Shaked said on Thursday at The Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference.
“It’s absurd that Blue and White doesn’t want to sit in a coalition with the prime minister,” Shaked said. “Even if they don’t, [Benjamin] Netanyahu will remain prime minister for seven months,” because of the election and coalition-forming process. “If there’s a unity government, he’d be prime minister for 11 months – they’re dragging the whole country to an election over four months.”
Shaked said that when she was in the Knesset on Wednesday, “it felt like a kindergarten,” and she accused the politicians of caring only about their egos.
The former justice minister said her party is “working in the 21 days to see if we can knock some sense into our leaders and stop an election.”
The 21 days is the current period, after Netanyahu and Gantz failed to build a coalition, in which the Knesset can nominate any of its members to be prime minister, as long as he or she has the backing of the majority of the Knesset.
Shaked also blamed Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman for Israel likely going to a third election in a row: “If we is willing to form a government, then we’ll have a government.”
Her remarks came a day after Liberman said he would only join a national unity government, and not a narrow right-wing coalition or a minority government supported from the outside by the Joint List.
As for the expectation that Netanyahu will be indicted in the coming days, Shaked said it will not change her party’s support for the prime minister.
“According to the law, the prime minister can stay in office until the court makes a final ruling,” she said. “The idea behind this law is that the legislators didn’t want one person, the attorney-general, to decide the fate of the government.”
Asked about her own political aspirations, Shaked said she would like to be prime minister “one day,” but wouldn’t aim for it until after Netanyahu leaves office.
Still, she added, “in political life, it is hard to predict the future.”
Shaked also addressed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement that the US will no longer consider communities in Judea and Samaria as illegal.
“According to international law, Judea and Samaria is not occupied territory,” she said. “It’s disputed territory... It’s important that the government of the US declared loud and clear that the settlements are legal.”


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