The chairman of the right promised to support a right-wing government led by Netanyahu, but has not yet ruled out a coalition with the opposing bloc. • According to senior negotiators, there are those who are pushing him there.
After another meeting with Bezalel Smutrich, from which it was clarified beyond any doubt that the minority government based on the PM is not on the agenda, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a press conference and sharply attacked none other than Naftali Bennett.
"The highlight was that he was a member of the left," Netanyahu said of him, adding: "If Bennett wants a right-wing government to announce tonight that he supports direct elections. The Knesset should not be dissolved, a quick referendum should be held."
Sources in the Likud added that "Bennett must stop playing a double game, and it is better not to be dragged after interested parties to overthrow the right-wing government."
Netanyahu in attack on Bennett: "Prevents right-wing government, wants to be prime minister because of personal ambition" // Photo: From the Prime Minister's Facebook
Bennett seems to be Netanyahu's preferred target of attacks.
Whenever something goes wrong in the negotiations, the one who comes to the forefront is the right-wing chairman.
Bennett himself goes crazy.
I do not understand what Netanyahu wants from him.
He made it clear that the prime minister could count the fingers of his party in any government check.
Let him bring defectors, let him bring Saar, let him bring Abbas, let him count me inside - says Bennett.
One thing he is not prepared to say, and that is that the option of sitting in an alternative government, with Yair Lapid, Merav Michaeli and Nitzan Horowitz, does not exist.
The reason he does not say this is not only for the purpose of negotiations with Netanyahu, but because according to senior officials in the negotiations, there are those who are really pushing him there.
Shalom Shlomo is his name.
Shlomo was Netanyahu's adviser, who has since retired a member of his opponents.
First to Naftali Bennett when it first ran for the Knesset in the 2013 elections, and since then he has had a round with Yair Lapid and Bnei Gantz, and recently returned to Naftali Bennett and today serves as his representative on the negotiating team, along with Tal Gan-Zvi, the veteran chief of staff.
While serving as Lapid's adviser, the chairman of Yesh Atid said he believes he is "the most brilliant man in the political system." That is, to bring Bennett to the left-wing government he wants to form after Netanyahu's mandate ends.
The Prime Minister objected to Shlomo's presence on the negotiating team, as he objected when he was on Ganz's negotiating team. And the big question of who he represents is constantly hovering in the space of the room where the contacts between the parties take place.