Bennett: Netanyahu could serve as minister in my government

Former Prime Minister and Beyachad party chairman Naftali Bennett surprised attendees at Hador newspaper's major election conference in Jerusalem on Sunday, declaring he would not rule out Benjamin Netanyahu serving as a minister in a government he leads.

"As long as we receive the fundamental principles, I have no problem with Netanyahu being a minister in our government," Bennett stated. "By the way, in 2003 Mr. Netanyahu, truly, I say to his credit, was one of the best finance ministers the State of Israel has had. I don't know if a Jew approaching 80 still has the energy for this, but if he accepts all our core principles, an immediate state commission of inquiry, universal draft, a constitution for Israel, he can pick up the phone."

On the haredi draft crisis and young men who refuse to enlist, Bennett warned the current situation amounts to "slow-motion suicide broadcast live." He directed blame at the political leadership: "Why are we surprised that at 18 they come out with 'we'll die but won't enlist', they're not the guilty ones here, they're the victims. The guilty ones are the Zionist parties that are the doormats of Deri and Goldknopf."

Bennett delivered sharp criticism of the government's conduct in the year before the October 7 attack: "The year before 7/10 was a terrible year when we tore ourselves apart from within because of conduct, that in my view, was a government that didn't come to implement its values in a normal way but woke up in the morning with 'how do I stick it to them,' how do I trample these leftists, how do I humiliate them." According to him, "this internal battle weakened and weakened the immune system of the state," while Israel's enemies watched closely.

Later in his remarks he addressed the political discourse and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich: "Throughout the years I thought we needed fixes, the problem is that today in the government they don't come to fix, they come to poke a finger in the eye. In Likud you don't advance by fixing but by succeeding in making the leftists jump."

Concluding his remarks, he directed his words to the religious-Zionist public: "Whoever votes for Smotrich sentences himself to 140 days of reserve duty, don't come with complaints afterward."