Former MK Ofer Shelah, who found his way out of Yesh Atid after daring to demand a primary in a party controlled by a single ruler, referred to his friend Ram Ben Barak’s announcement that he would run against Lapid and immediately afterwards retracted it | And also what is his opinion on the appointment of Smotrich as Minister of Defense
Ofer Shelah, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, and a former member of Knesset on behalf of ‘Yesh Atid’, referred to MK Ram Ben Barak’s statement on Channel 2 that he would run for the leadership of ‘Yesh Atid’, and the withdrawal from this, which came immediately afterwards. He addressed the question of whether Bezalel Smotrich is suitable for the position of Minister of Defense. According to him, one should not be pressured by the possibility of him serving in this position, because “the Ministry of Defense is a weak ministry, compared to the body he is in charge of.”
“If Smotrich is minister of security – to pack up and run?”, he was asked at the beginning of the interview on radio 103FM. He was quick to say no, and explained in detail why. According to him, the operator of power in the State of Israel is the Prime Minister, while the builder of power is the Minister of Defense. “The Ministry of Defense is weak relative to the body it is in charge of. By the way, in Judea and Samaria the Minister of Defense can certainly have influence.”
Later, he recounted the story of his acquaintance with Smotrich, and said: “Smotrich was with me on the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee. He is a wise man. It is not that you go in and open fire in all directions. After I said that, I would like a person who will deal with the problems of the force building that the IDF is building. If that happens, we will all leave. are hired”.
When asked what he thought of Ben Barak’s move, he said that he liked him very much on a personal level, but they had not spoken for a while, and he had not consulted him about this move. “When I demanded primaries in Yesh Atid, I demanded primaries less because of the democratic process, and more because I saw exactly something that is being expressed now, and that is that as long as Yesh Atid is conducted in the way it is conducted, there is a glass ceiling above it. Not necessarily in the number of mandates, but in the political achievement it can bring. Let them draw the conclusions from that. As for Ben Barak, I have no idea. I really have no idea.”
Ofer Shelah and Yair Lapid Photo: Miriam Elster, Flash 90.
He also added: “The spread of an entire camp, which is almost 50 percent of the Jewish public, of every ideology and thought, except for one person’s place of residence and the question of whether he will live on Balfour Street or not is part of the factors that led to Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory in the elections. The government of change, which in many aspects Much like the security and economic policy, there was no difference between it and the Netanyahu government. To me, this is a much greater danger to Israeli politics – whatever your position may be.”
Finally, Shelah admitted: “We need a system change, but I don’t know if it will happen in Yesh Atid. I think that the camp that Meretz represents and Yesh Atid represents has spread from everything except Mark, not Bibi, and this is also very bad in the context of the many things that lie ahead of us, in the political context, and also Contributed to Netanyahu’s victory in the elections.”