Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke on Tuesday morning at The Jerusalem Post 10th Annual Conference and shamelessly admitted that his goal is to limit Chareidi political influence.
After speaking about the Iranian threat, Bennett moved on to politics, saying: “In Israel there are basically three political vectors: the national force, which I’d absolutely call right-wing; the globalist-humanist approach, which I’d basically call the Left, and the religious: Chareidim and the Orthodox. In practice, we need all three vectors but you actually want that debate.”
“An Israel without the religious aspect for example would not be an Israel I want because we are the Jewish state. I’m happy there are Chareidim but we need to limit their political sway,” Bennett asserted.
“I wouldn’t want an Israel without a left-wing,” Benett continued. “While clearly, I feel differently on many issues I’m happy there’s that counter so we can debate it. You wouldn’t want Israel without its national force. So my point is that it’s not just a compromise, where we move in one direction and the other side loses. It is about finding the right point between the forces. I’m proud to lead such a government.”
“An illegitimate prime minister with six seats, who in all polls barely scratches the electoral threshold and represents only himself, wants to limit the influence of Chareidi MKs, who represent a million people,” Chas chairman Aryeh Deri responded to Bennett’s statements. “Bennett, every scam has an end. The day will come when a government that represents the will of the people will be formed, including the Chareidi public, which received 16 mandates in the previous election.”
Likud MK Ofir Sofer said: “As part of the abandonment of his ideology combined with the fact that he has no electoral base anymore, Bennett has begun stealing Lapid’s ideology. Until now he did this through his ‘messenger,’ [Religious Affairs Minister] Matan Kahana. This morning, Bennett didn’t hide his new political views.”
Political commentator Eitan Zeliger wrote: “In order to limit the influence of the Chareidim, Bennett can get behind the wheelbarrow where Leiberman already put them to bring to the dump.”
Kol Chai Radio journalist Avi Ravina simply wrote: “Please, tell me that Bennett didn’t utter this brazen and arrogant sentence.”
בבקשה, תגידו לי שבנט לא אמר את המשפט החצוף והמתנשא הזה pic.twitter.com/gueTJKHU2I
— אבי רבינא Avi Ravina (@AviRabina) October 12, 2021
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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16 Responses
Busha ve cherpa
He’s right. Haredim, in many instances, have made a mockery of the government and of Yiddishkeit. Exhibit A: Porush’s pathetic display.
Bennett is an antisemite.
If you understand what Zionism and “Religious Zionism” are, then Bennett’s statement makes perfect sense and is not at all offensive.
The Zionist State of Israel is a secular Zionist state, not at all Jewish. However, because of the absolute farce of Zionism’s claim to be Jewish, it needs some real Jews to give it “legitimacy”. That’s all he’s actually saying.
Busha ve cherpa.I know a long time thatg this is the charackter of Bennet why he wears a kippah on his heat?
HaKatan bechochma, HaKatan beanava, HaKatan beyira…..
ALL and I mean ALL our sages were “Zionist”. Make no mistake about it. Perhaps their flavor of Zionism was different but they all dreamed of living in Zion, even if Mashiach did not yet arrive.
Just change the word Charedim with Arab, see you later.
Benet, you want to limit Hashem’s influence in Israel? Who, do you think, gave you Israel in the first place?
It is good to know that EY shares an increasingly global tradition of electing political leaders who cannot coherently articulate their world view on a consistent basis. Any correlation between the plain language meaning of their statements and their actions more often than not is entirely coincidental, both on the left and the right. This comes at a time when the majority of Israelis yearn for the verbal precision of a Joe Biden or the rhetorical elegance of a Donald Trump.
The Chareidi parties attack him viciously every day. Are you surprised if he has negative feelings about them?
Bennett is an evil and very ugly bag if scum who would not even know how to merely identify truth if it danced in front of him wearing Dobby’s tea-towel. However, I don’t get the outrage here. Would anybody be mad if he had said, “the left is important but we need to limit its influence”? He just
Yabia Omer: All, and I mean ALL, or our sages were Muslim, since Islam means subjugation to G-ds will, right?
its just a different FLAVOR of Islam, right?
but, seriously, the only reason why this statement is considered bad, is because ppl look at Israel as a jewish state. if Biden said, ” i want Haredim, i just dont want them so powerful”, would that be a big deal?? Your whole assumption that because Israel is Jewish, they should respect Hareim, is TOTALLY wrong. Israel is NOT Jewish at ALL. Once you get that through your head, you wont complain so much
“Yabia Omer”:
As it happens, Rav Ovadia Zatza”L was unfortunately fooled by Rabbi Kasher’s “Reishis Tzemichas” forgery (heresy). So you might want to look into that and give Rav Ovadia Zatza”L some nachas when you discover the truth about that sad chilul Hashem of a forgery.
We all daven many times daily for Hashem to restore His rulership in Yerushalayim with Mashiach tzidkeinu BB”A. Not, CH”V, any flavor or even the smallest (putrid) whiff of idolatrous Zionism.
The fact that he equates the ultra-orthodox with Judaism should be Taken as a backhanded compliment
Bennett’s antipathy is towards Judaism as a whole . he despises that and that’s his real goal