Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu is at the beginning of a campaign that could be the last in which the ultra-Orthodox parties go hand in hand with him, also to the opposition, as happened more than a year ago, and now his main efforts are to finally reach the 61st seat.
Netanyahu spoke tonight (Tuesday) at the inauguration of a new neighborhood in Beit El, minutes after it became known that Prime Minister Yair Lapid demanded to remove from the agenda a plan to build 2,000 housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem and Defense Minister Bnei Gantz approved a list of concessions to the Palestinian Authority:
“Some people call this place ‘occupied territories’ – not us. Judea and Samaria is the property of our ancestors. For eight years, during President Obama’s administration, I faced enormous pressure that was not directed at any other government in Israel. I was told in my first meeting with President Obama “Not even one brick in Judea and Samaria” – look around and see how many bricks there are here, how many buildings there are here. We doubled the settlement in Judea and Samaria in our time. I replied to them: “, Said the head of the opposition.
At this point, Netanyahu went on to attack the prime ministerial candidates, Lapid from the left and Gantz from the center: “Who will continue to protect Judea and Samaria? Who will do it if not us? Lapid? Gantz and Gideon? Merav Michaeli? The four of them with the Muslim Brotherhood “Settlement, Jewish identity, our flag. This is the election – a strong and solid national government led by the Likud or the other Israeli-Palestinian government. Lapid and Gantz have no other government, only a government that depends on the Muslim Brotherhood and those who deny our right to the Land of Israel.”
At the beginning of his speech, Netanyahu was heard responding to a question from an audience, who asked the election question: What will happen if this time, too, the Likud and the entire right-wing bloc do not achieve the 61st? Netanyahu, as usual in front of the cameras, replied optimistically: “What will happen if there are not 61? There will be 64!”.
In another speech at the ceremony, Shlomi Emunim’s representative in the Knesset, MK Meir Porush, sent an implicit message to his friends in Torah Judaism, and in particular his party’s chairman in the passing Knesset, MK Moshe Gafni, following statements regarding the future of ultra-Orthodox parties if the 61 does not arrive: Ignore the publications and background noise – Torah Judaism has never sat in a left-wing government, and the Council of Torah Scholars has already instructed us in the past to go with the party that is closest to Israeli tradition. We will work hard for 112 days to bring 61 to the Netanyahu-led government. “