Bennett: Netanyahu doesn’t have to include New Right in unity gov’t

New Right co-founder MK Naftali Bennett said Saturday night that he “released” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from any commitment to his party as part of the bloc of 55 right-wing, religious MKs, saying it was more important to form a unity government immediately than for New Right to be in it.

Speaking on Channel 12 News, Bennett also said that he had not been offered a ministerial portfolio in the current transitional government, despite reports suggesting Netanyahu is considering offering him one, but added that he would “consider” a position as minister if offered.

“I am saying now that if I present an obstacle to the formation of a government, then I exempt Netanyahu from all responsibility to me, and I’ll willing to be in the opposition,” Bennett said. “The most important thing is that a government is established now, and as quickly as possible.”

Following the election, Netanyahu swiftly formed a political union with the right-wing religious and ultra-Orthodox parties, creating a bloc of 55 MKs who he said had to be included in any national unity government with Blue and White.

Blue and White has firmly rejected this condition, insisting that the policy positions of the right-wing religious and ultra-Orthodox parties are incompatible with majority opinion in the country.

Bennett’s comments are seemingly aimed at paving the way to a national unity government with just Blue and White and Likud, although it is doubtful that other parties of the bloc of 55 would be as willing to abandon their government posts.

“I will do everything to help Netanyahu and Gantz establish a national unity government – even an emergency national government just for a year or two – to unblock the stoppage, deal with Gaza, deal with the Iranian threat, and to get money into the health system,” Bennett said.

Channel 12 News reported on Friday night that Netanyahu was considering offering Bennett a ministerial post, with Bennett’s much coveted defense minister position a possibility, since it is currently held by the prime minister.

On Saturday night, however, Channel 13 news reported that Blue and White had informally offered Bennett’s New

Right Party two ministerial positions of its choice to join a minority government of 55 MKs, including Blue and White, Yisrael Beytenu, Labor-Gesher and the Democratic Union.

It would seem unlikely, however, that the right-wing New Right and left-wing Democratic Union could sit in a government together.

Blue and White denied the report, saying that no party had been offered ministerial positions, “and certainly not small parties.”

If the offer were true, it might explain the sudden report that Netanyahu was considering giving Bennett a ministerial position, especially considering the considerable political enmity between them, given the prime minister’s concern over being ejected from office.

Speaking further on Saturday night, Bennett said that he was in “constant contact” with Netanyahu, and has also spoken with Gantz, saying that the ball was in “both their courts,” and that both leaders need to “climb down from the trees” that their election promises had put them in.

He mentioned specifically Blue and White’s “three no’s” regarding coalition negotiations, including its refusal to sit with Netanyahu in government, to allow the religious-Zionist parties into the government, and to allow the ultra-Orthodox parties in. “They have to abandon

these ‘no’s,’” Bennett said. •