“It’s a time of emergency so we need to have unity,” economy minister says.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANNaftali Bennett at a Bayit Yehudi convention at Tel Aviv University, September 10, 2014.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The security situation has gotten so bad that Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett said Wednesday he is ready to sit in a national unity government together with MK Zehava Gal-On’s Meretz Party.Bennett reacted to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling for Labor, Meretz, Kadima, Shas and United Torah Judaism to join a national unity government at a press conference at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Tuesday.“It’s a time of emergency so we need to have unity,” Bennett told The Jerusalem Post at the Knesset.Coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin called the leaders of all the Zionist opposition parties Tuesday at Netanyahu’s request. Labor and Meretz turned down the offer.Gal-On said Bennett was smart to say he would sit in a coalition with Meretz during a time of emergency, but indicated that she would not be willing to join any coalition that included either Bayit Yehudi or Yisrael Beytenu.Labor leader Isaac Herzog dismissed Netanyahu’s invitation as “not serious” and “mere political spin.”
