Netanyahu's party accused Bennett of returning to the brief political bond he had with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid when they both entered the Knesset in 2013.
By GIL HOFFMANNaftali Bennett (L) and Benjamin Netanyahu (R)(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party and Naftali Bennett's Yamina Party accused each other of not being truly right-wing in an exchange of blows on Wednesday.In an interview with the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) website Kikar Shabbat, Bennett said Netanyahu and the haredi parties broke up the right-wing bloc when they left Yamina out of the current coalition.The Likud released a four-second video of Bennett saying "there is no more right-wing bloc," without providing the context. Netanyahu's party accused Bennett of returning to the brief political bond he had with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid when they both entered the Knesset in 2013."The covenant of the brothers has returned on steroids," a Likud spokesman said in a press release that accompanied the video. "Bennett is officially declaring that there is no right-wing bloc. Instead of leading a satellite party, Bennett should officially join Yesh Atid."The Likud also expressed outrage that Yamina - like every other party in the opposition - supports dispersing the Knesset.Yamina responded that it is Netanyahu who has a bond with Lapid, because both leaders have engaged in politics when they should have been focusing on fighting the coronavirus and healing the economy."As long as they cannot rise above politics and understand the challenge of the moment, neither deserves to be prime minister.A bill sponsored by Yamina MK Bezalel Smotrich that would instill a cooling-off period for an attorney-general or state prosecutor before being appointed to the Supreme Court fell by a wide margin on Wednesday afternoon. Likud MKs boycotted the debate and the vote on the bill, prompting Smotrich to accuse the Likud of "not being right-wing" and "not knowing how to govern."While Yamina will back dispersing the Knesset, Blue and White remains undecided.Yesh Atid mocked Blue and White officials for saying that they could propose their own bill to disperse the Knesset and pass it on Monday before Yesh Atid's bill is set to come to a vote next Wednesday.
Sources in Yesh Atid said Blue and White has proposed no such bill, and it is already too late to propose a bill that could come to a vote next week."Blue and White clearly has not learned how the Knesset works," a Yesh Atid official said.
