I have an unsolved puzzle. It's a question that's been bothering me for the past few weeks.
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Naftali and Ayelet, this duo, when did they decide to turn their backs on the Haredi public? Did it happen very recently? About a year ago?
I, by the way, am not sure they are together. I mean, the answer may be more complex. It may be that Naftali Bennett decided to do what he did a little over a month ago, about a year ago; it may be that Ayelet joined him at a later stage.
But let me share the findings with you.
About a year ago, Netanyahu - or as Bennett obsessively calls him, 'Knesset Member Bibi Netanyahu' - turned his back on Bennett and Shaked, leaving them outside, even though they marched with him in the right-wing bloc. In their opinion, the haredim also made no effort to include them in the coalition. Either way, the bottom line: they were not included in the Netanyahu-Gantz 'dream coalition'.
Since then, the instinct for revenge has been bubbling within them, and perhaps rightly so.
Now, I ask myself: In all of Bennett's and Shaked's tours of the Haredi public during the Corona crisis, and I myself was on two of them - Naftali in Elad, Ayelet in Bnei Brak - I heard the promises, and the sincerity in their words was so impressive, that it's hard for me to think that even then they harbored a desire for revenge; even then they concluded, among themselves, that this is what is going to happen: a coalition of the left, Netanyahu haters, and Arabs.
I find it hard to believe that the decision was already made back then. Because if so, there is nothing that surpasses the cynicism of Israeli politics.
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I can tell you something else: It was before the elections. At that time, Yamina's number of seats had jumped to 20. Ayelet Shaked gathered journalists into one of the Knesset chambers for an off-the-record briefing. And indeed, apart from a few isolated quotes, the things said there were not quoted.
But some of her sentences are etched in my mind to this day. I remember asking her: Will you recommend Netanyahu as prime minister in the next elections, if and when they happen?
She gave the following answer: Those who always wanted us, wanted us to be right-wing to Netanyahu, to keep him from remaining right-wing. Today we come to a different audience, to a different population, we come to an audience that says: We want Naftali as prime minister. We want this audience with us in the elections.
I was surprised. I asked her: Naftali as prime minister? Even if you are now rising in the polls, a prime minister will not come out of this, especially since by the time of the elections the number of seats could decrease. But she insisted: Naftali will be the next prime minister.
By the way, during the election campaign they didn't hide it. When they asked him who he would support for prime minister, he said: "I, Naftali, will support myself as prime minister.".
To everyone it seemed like an impossible thing to do - but it happened.
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Now, why am I angry with them? Because after the 'dormitory decree' I'm not just angry with Lieberman. Lieberman declared before the elections that this is what he would do - and this is what he is doing. I'm angry with Naftali and Ayelet.
You, who reached out to the Haredi public, took advantage of their innocence, and said, 'We will help you' - stand on the other side today; you did not raise your voice in the 'dormitory sector', you did not protest. Today you also voted against the bill to provide assistance to victims of the 'Meron disaster', assistance to unfortunate families.
The meaning: You are not in favor of the Haredi public in any way, shape or form.
Why, then, did you come to visit the Haredi cities? What did you want? Did you prepare the ground for the Haredim to join you in the coalition? Why didn't you come honestly and say: We are not with you. You threw us out of the bloc (and that's true), and therefore if a coalition is formed, we will not go with you. If you want, come to us, to the place where we will be: with the left, with Yair Lapid, with Avigdor Lieberman (who we still don't know if he agrees to accept Haredim at all, but that's another discussion).
Why didn't you say all this? Why weren't you open and honest with the Haredi public? Why didn't you tell your voters - and also the Haredim - on the eve of the elections: We are not in the right-wing bloc?!
Why didn't you say what Ayelet said in the press briefing - we are not in Netanyahu's bloc, but in a bloc that wants Naftali to lead the government. It is possible that there were a few seats moving towards you, the same ones who didn't want Netanyahu to lead the government, and instead of voting for Saar or Lapid, they would vote for you. But then, we would know that you formed a government honestly, with votes that knew what you would do.
Today, that is not the case. Therefore, I point the accusing finger this week, not at Avigdor Lieberman, who was honest with his voters and also with the Haredi public - he said, 'I want to take you to the dump with a wheelbarrow.' He did not lie, did not cheat, did not bluff.
I point the accusing finger specifically at you - Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked.
