Speaking to Kol Berama Radio on Wednesday evening, Bayit Yehudi party leader Education Minister Naftali Bennet announced he would like to see chareidim among the candidates seeking a spot on the party list for Knesset.

He feels there are persons who want to make the chareidim a problem, adding he views things differently as there has been a major increase over the years in the number of chareidim serving in the IDF. He added if 30,000 chareidim tried enlisting today, the IDF would not know what to do with them since special accommodations have to be set into place, including gender segregation on the bases where they serve.

The call to chareidim is in line with recent statement by Bennet in past months, as he explains he wishes to change his party from being sectoral to one that attacks all types of Israelis, clearly abandoning the party’s roots as the former National Religious Party.

Recent polls are not as optimistic for Bennet’s party as he would like potential voters to believe, but the minister is confident he will have a large enough party following the next elections to demand the defense portfolio, which he failed to obtain in the current and previous government.

Nevertheless, Bennet told the Kol Berama audience that he sees himself serving as Defense Minister in the next government, and eventually serving as Prime Minister after Binyamin Netanyahu has stepped down.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)