Bennett: I won’t join gov’t led by Lapid; Netanyahu: He’s in Purim costume
"I am prepared to sit in any national government. I am in the camp of the people of Israel, and we have to keep the government in the national [right-wing] camp."
By LAHAV HARKOV, GIL HOFFMAN‘NAFTALI BENNETT (in the Knesset in August) has not only passion, but a plan.’(photo credit: OREN BEN HAKOON/POOL)
Yamina will not join a government led by Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett declared on Wednesday morning, limiting the possible governments that can be formed after the March 23 election.“He’s on the Left,” Bennett said of Lapid in an interview with KAN Bet. “We don’t have a problem if he will be part of a government, but he can’t be its head.”Bennett argued that Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu can be replaced only by someone on the Right.”Yamina is not part of the pro-Netanyahu or anti-Netanyahu bloc, Bennett said.As for whether he would sit in a government with New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar at the helm, Bennett said: “I am prepared to sit in any national government. I am in the camp of the people of Israel, and we have to keep the government in the national [right-wing] camp.”Sa’ar said on a tour of the Negev Wednesday that “it is now completely clear, after what my friend Naftali Bennett said, that there is no practical way for Lapid to form a government.” He said that “there are only two possible governments: A government of continuing the same under Netanyahu, or a government of change under me.”Bennett likely made the remarks so that right-wing voters will choose Yamina. However, many recent polls show that even with Yamina behind him, Netanyahu does not have a right-wing majority to form a coalition as long as ex-Likud minister Sa’ar keeps his promise not to be in a government with the prime minister.Netanyahu mocked Bennett and Sa’ar, saying that they are in Purim costumes when they say they won’t sit with Lapid.“They have to deny it, and you know why? Because they can’t make it without Lapid,” Netanyahu said at a Likud faction meeting on Wednesday.“They have no way to form a government without it being a left-wing government led by Lapid, either totally [left-wing] or partially,” he said. “In the masquerade ball, Bennett and Gideon are trying to hide that they don’t have a government without Lapid as prime minister.”
Netanyahu said this election is between him and Lapid for the premiership. Likud has the potential to get 40 seats in the Knesset if it increases voter turnout, the party’s leader added. He angered his rivals on Thursday, when he appeared to call them “diseases.”“We are close to getting a stable right-wing government, without rotations, without dual leadership, without a government within a government,” Netanyahu said. “The nation wants a stable right-wing government, without all those diseases.”Lapid posted Netanyahu’s remarks on social media and responded: “Is that what we are to you Netanyahu? Citizens who work, serve in the army and pay taxes? We are morbid? Our children are morbid? Have you gone mad?”Sa’ar added: “Netanyahu has lost it completely.” He also blasted his rival for tallying mandates against him on a whiteboard at his Likud faction meeting.With his own whiteboard, Sa’ar tallied the number of Israelis who have died, lost their jobs and missed school due to the coronavirus.“Netanyahu, you did not address the numbers that truly matter,” he said.
