Bennett responds to Saar's secret blackmail campaign against him: "I will not use the same illegal methods" • Refused to comment on reports that Elkin had been in contact with the "right"
Naftali Bennett and Gideon Saar // Photo: Yossi Zeliger, Arik Sultan
About a month before the election, the chairman of the right-wing party, Naftali Bennett, was yesterday hosted in the joint election broadcasts of i24NEWS and "Israel Today" and referred to the publication according to which Saar launched an aggressive defamation campaign against him.
In interviews with i24NEWS journalist Kalev Ben David and Jean-Charles Benon and the editor-in-chief of "Israel Today", Boaz Bismuth, Bennett referred to the chairman of "New Hope": "Saar is a good political activist, I am an entrepreneur and leader.
What Israel needs now is no more dirty tricks, we had enough of them.
I will not use them in illegal methods and hide behind anonymous accounts to attack me. "
We are in a deep crisis and the only way out of this crisis is to put small politics aside and start working. "
Bennett declined to comment on reports that Zeev Elkin first had contacts with the right-wing party: "I do not want to hurt Elkin, he makes his decisions and I respect his every decision."
Bennett sharply attacked Prime Minister Netanyahu: "Israel is not governed.
There is no management with the appropriate capabilities of this country, if it was a commercial company - the CEO would be fired. It's time to fire the CEO and bring in a new CEO, a new leader, to say thank you to Netanyahu and I do appreciate his contribution but he does not Will be able to unite the people. "
He added that "after 32 years in politics it does not work. There is a point where we need to say goodbye to the leader and I promise everyone, the day after will be great. Israel will continue to prosper, its future does not depend on Netanyahu."
Despite this, when asked whether he would vote for a yeshiva under Netanyahu or for another election, he replied: "Unlike Lapid, Lieberman and Saar - I do not boycott the Likud. That is democracy. "
Bennett criticized Netanyahu for his ties with Mansour Abbas and said of the Arab parties: "I will adopt every citizen in Israel, Jewish or Arab, but I will have zero tolerance for anyone who fights against the very existence of Israel."
The right-wing chairman is optimistic about the next government's relationship with the Biden administration: "I know deeply the American mentality and I believe we need to speak openly.
There will be things that we will agree on, which are about 90% of the things, and there will be things that we will not agree on and that is fine.
"The Prime Minister has missed the greatest opportunity in history to impose sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. As long as I am in politics, I will not give up one inch of Israeli land. I am sure we will do a good job of establishing good relations with the new American administration."
Bennett added that the government is currently running.
Without goals and without accountability.
When I ran a high-tech company every manager had goals, and their reward depended on meeting goals.
This is how I will make the government clean.
Each minister will be committed to transparent goals and will report on compliance or non-compliance with them.
Part of his salary will depend on performance.
It is time for senior officials and ministers to make the same effort as in the private sector.
