Jan 14, 2020

Netanyahu threatens Bennett and Smotritch

According to news reports, PM Netanyahu has threatened Ministers Naftali Bennett and Betzalel Smotritch. The threat is that if they do not come to a full unity agreement with the other right wing parties (Habayit Hayehudi and Otzma Yehudit) and run together as one unit he will fire them from their ministries - Bennett will lose the Defense Ministry and Smotritch will lose the Transportation Ministry.

I am not surprised. This sector, politically, has always been Netanyahu's punching bag, but they almost always do what he wants.

I would like Bennett and Smotritch to respond with their own threats about not supporting him for Prime Minister or for forming the coalition. They don't really have another choice (they do, just like everybody has a choice, but let's say they don't), but on the other side the Arabs don't have a choice either and they are not in anyone's pocket. The Haredi parties don't get treated like this because they could theoretically sit with any candidate, even though recently they have chosen not to. If the dati leumi parties would not act like Netanyahu is their only option, he might treat them with a little more respect.

And they should tell Netanyahu to bring Otzma into Likud, or else....




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1 comment:

  1. ehwhyJanuary 15, 2020 12:24 PM

    - Didn't Bibi just spend months arguing that other parties have no right to interfere with the internal make up of another party?

    - Yamina refused to sign the weekly Bibi-Bloc 'Bibi is the leader' loyalty pledge and he was given his dream job, with a party with only 3 mandates. The strategy of calling the bluff by ignoring it and suggesting a Likud/Otzma merger is the best way to neutralize this issue. Any open threat in response, only threatens to alienate voters.

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