Bennett: Otzma Yehudit is kosher in a technical bloc.
By GIL HOFFMANNew Right leaders Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The New Right will not ask for the Defense Ministry if it joins the next government as part of lessons learned from its unsuccessful campaign in April, New Right leader Ayelet Shaked told The Jerusalem Post on a campaign stop in Efrat on Monday.Shaked and her political ally Naftali Bennett came to the Dagan hill in Efrat in order to point out what they termed massive unauthorized Arab construction in Area C. She said the next defense minister had to deal with the problem immediately, but unlike in April, she said she would not demand the Defense portfolio for Bennett.“Over the past few years, the Palestinian Authority has funded taking over massive amounts of Area C,” she said. “The State of Israel is not investing enough in this. The next defense minister must take this as an important project and handle it aggressively. He must tell the EU to stop helping the PA take over of land.”Shaked and Bennett reiterated that they would seek to build a large bloc with all the parties to the Right of the Likud. Bennett said the offer was that Shaked would head the list and that half its candidates would come from the New Right.Asked about the Far Right Otzma Yehudit party, Shaked and Bennett said they needed to be on the list, but Bennett emphasized that the list was a technical bloc that would break up after the election.“A technical bloc can have in it different views,” Bennett said. “Think of it as a bus that just has to get past a crossing and then can be taken apart.”Asked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to prevent her from leading the Union of Right-Wing Parties list, Shaked said "We live in a democratic country and only the public will decide if I will head the list."
