Naftali Bennett sure: "With 15 seats I will be prime minister" • Attacks Saar: "Conducted an anonymous and illegal campaign against us" Just to the right "• The full interview: on Friday in the" Shishvat "supplement
About two weeks before the election, Naftali Bennett is sure: I will be the next prime minister.
Although he heads the fourth largest party, and the numbers do not really work out, he still has orderly plans: "We will not change Netanyahu, but immediately after Pesach we will shake his hand, say 'thank you very much' and replace him."
In an interview to be published tomorrow in the "Shishvat" supplement, Bennett attacks his political opponents.
"I feel like they have drawn a target on my back," he says, "for several months now Saar has been publishing messages against me anonymously. Netanyahu has been doing this for years. Smutrich started a campaign against me, Gideon ran an anonymous and illegal campaign against us for a while. Only when he was caught "He admitted this warmly, and then remembered to call for a ceasefire. Even now, his party members continue to attack us."
To Saar, he continues, "I do not give grades. Gideon Saar is a skilled politician, and not an incompetent person. The main thing needed today is entrepreneurship, energy, management of a major national crisis. While I traveled around the country, I set up hotels as defense minister and we took care to save lives. "I do not know what he did. Leaders need to look at moments of crisis."
In the interview, he also refers to his former faction member, Bezalel Smutrich.
"It's not that we went for a beer together in the evening. They come to work," he says, clarifying: "I appreciate Bezalel. I was surprised by his move to form a party and everything, but I have no doubt that the day after the election we will be able to work together."
From the beginning of the campaign, he adds, "Smutrich says we have no more values. We will go with Arabs and leftists and Hitler lovers. I think it is not serious. It is disappointing to see a campaign that is all based on attacking us."
The statement "Bibi's head boy" was not too difficult?
"His statements that 'Bennett abandoned the values' are no less harsh."
The chairman of the right did not remain indifferent to Smutrich's partner, the chairman of Otzma Yehudit Itamar Ben-Gvir.
"An ideological chasm is open between me and him, the main thing being the acceptance of the State of Israel and statehood," he says, "but as long as he is in favor of a Jewish and democratic state, he can be a partner."
"I was never offered a bribe"
One person that Bennett is willing to disqualify, already now, is the chairman of Yesh Atid Yair Lapid, who in his government is not willing to serve. "Lapid is a leftist.
I will not be a partner in the formation of a left-wing government.
I look over the years at his policy, at the attack on the settlers in deportation from Gush Katif, at the article according to which the money is 'buried between Itamar and Yitzhar'.
In moments of truth, Lapid is on the left. "He said," I will form the government.
We will replace Netanyahu only on the right, not on the left. "The ultra-Orthodox, he said," can be partners in the government, but not the landlords.
The owners of the government are the entire public. "
Bennett believes that "if I get 15 seats, I will be prime minister. Believe me, I know how to do it. I will succeed, thanks to the fact that I am not part of the Netanyahu boycott and not Netanyahu's fan base. There is a feeling in some sections of the national public that Israel "It will take place the day after Netanyahu. He managed to assimilate it, but that is not true. Immediately after Pesach, we will shake Netanyahu's hand, say 'thank you very much' - and replace him."
The right-wing chairman insists in an interview that “only I will avoid a fifth election.
I will not let that happen.
A national change government has been built, there can be parties that are not from the right, I have no problem with that, as long as my prime minister.
Anyone who is in favor of a Jewish and democratic state can participate in a national change government that will propel Israel forward. "
In the interview, Bennett also refers to the lifestyle he leads, and the differences in this sense between him and other candidates running in the election.
"Money for me is not personal. It's not that I eat seven steaks a day, or buy a Ferrari. It does not interest me. It did buy me the freedom to dedicate my whole life to this people. It's easier to get into politics when you have an economic back. Think that if a politician has no "Economic turnover is very stressful. In all my years, they have not approached me with offers of bribes, because there is no point. It makes it possible not to knock an account to anyone, except the people of Israel."