The chairman of the dati leumi Bayit Yehudi party, Education Minister Naftali Bennet, on Monday was among the speakers at the Chadashot Conference, addressing various scenarios in the next elections pertaining to the right-wing parties in Knesset.

In an interview with Danny Kushmaro, Bennet referred to statements made last week by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who feels it is realistic to believe the party will receive 40 seats in the next national elections. “The significance of Likud receiving 40 seats marks the elimination of the Bayit Yehudi party and the ideological right-wing”.

Regarding the ongoing rivalry between them, Bennet and PM Netanyahu, Bennet added, “Netanyahu does not want us in the government. I have respect for Netanyahu, but it is not convenient for him to have a strong national backbone that stands in the interests of the State of Israel” [in his coalition].

Regarding the dati leumi community, and the party being viewed as sectoral, Bennet added, “If we want to grow, we need to open the party to non-religious people as well. It’s a spectrum: After all, the Labor Party also has Bouji [Yitzchak Herzog] on the moderate side and Stav Shafir on the extreme side; Likud also has [Yehuda] Glick and [Tzachi] Hanegbi. Here, too, we need a spectrum, it’s too one-dimensional – but [Betzalel] Smotrich will also appear on the next list – he is not radioactive.”

Bennet was then asked to address remarks made by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said “It is preferable that Bennet deals with pedophiles in the Education Ministry than matters of security.”

Bennet said, “I will deal with this. These two teachers have long been outside the education system and it did not take 48 hours,” referring to Lieberman’s statement when in the Knesset opposition, that if appointed defense minister, he would eliminate Ismail Haniyeh within 48 hours, which he obviously has not yet done.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)