Yamina Party leader Ayelet Shaked said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is purposefully trying to weaken the right-wing union and take its voters, and that if he succeeds he will establish a government with the Blue and White Party instead of with the right wing. “If we only have five or six seats, then it is reasonable to assume that he’ll invite [Blue and White leader Benny] Gantz into his government,” Shaked said at the Maariv-Jerusalem Post conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. She also said that Netanyahu’s statement Tuesday night declaring his intention to annex the Jordan Valley after the elections was essentially a call to Blue and White to join his government, since that party has also declared its intent to preserve Israeli control of the Jordan Valley.“Gantz and his party do not oppose applying sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, [and] Netanyahu said that he wanted to form a government that would implement the Trump plan,” Shaked said, implying that Blue and White could also form a government with the Likud to carry out the annexation of the Jordan Valley while also acquiescing to the establishment of a Palestinian state, which Yamina opposes.The former justice minister said that the central question of the election was whether or not Netanyahu “will form a left-wing government with Gantz and [Labor-Gesher leader] Amir Peretz or with us and the right wing.”Shaked also called on right-wing voters who would naturally vote for the religious-Zionist parties which comprise the Yamina union to “not fall for [Netanyahu’s] bluff about [Likud] being the biggest party.” The Yamina leader was referencing the prime minister’s urgent calls on right-wing voters to vote for Likud so that it will be the biggest party and therefore be given the first opportunity by the president to form a government.“Don’t fall for the bluff of the biggest party. It is the number of recommendations which each candidate gets which is important,” Shaked implored right-wing voters.
