Smotrich: 'We will try to form a right-wing government in this Knesset''

26 בJune 2022   

The chairman of Religious Zionism, MK Bezalel Smotrich, said, in an interview he gave to Ben Caspit and Yinon Magal on their program on 103FM, that in his opinion it is still possible to form an alternative right-wing government in the current Knesset. Safe swimming in the sea: everything you need to know about spending time at the beach ""I still do not despair of being able to realize the will of the majority of the people and form a national government in this Knesset," he said. However, he admitted: "Elections, on a personal level, are the best thing for me, we will grow significantly, but I am not willing under any circumstances to prioritize my personal interests and my political desires over the responsibility I have for the State of Israel. "We have challenges, and we must not waste time on elections. We will go to elections, if they are forced upon us. If everyone is dragged along by Lapid's megalomania and opportunism, then there will be no choice but to go to elections, and we will work hard, but it is possible and necessary to prevent it and I think that whoever does not do it will pay the price." To Magal's statement that this will not happen because Bennett pledged to transfer the ministry to Lapid - Smotrich replied: "Where is the word that Bennett gave to the seven mandates that elected him? Where is his word, which he has given to all of us for years, about the desire to establish a right-wing government? By the way, it (the right-wing government) will not destroy, God forbid, but will fix the judicial system and strengthen it." To a financial question about how an alternative government can be established, Smotrich replied: "In two or three months, hundreds of thousands of households in Israel will not be able to buy chicken and meat for Shabbat, and will go into a crazy overdraft. The last thing they are interested in is all sorts of fights between children who are unable to sit with each other because of all sorts of past grievances. "Unequivocally, a right-wing government can be established. As soon as people understand that we have a responsibility, with Iran aspiring to nuclear power alongside a complex American administration, they will agree to fulfill their responsibility to the people." He referred to MK Dudi Amsalem's words about sitting with Ra'am in a coalition: "We said unequivocally, we will not sit in any coalition with supporters of anti-Zionist terrorism. Ra'am has revealed its true face, and, God willing, it seems to me that today this is not just the preserve of the right. More and more people understand that this is ultimately an Islamist, nationalist, extremist party that denies the existence of the State of Israel. We have a responsibility to take care of the Arab citizens of Israel. We will take care of them, as we did in previous years." When asked if he had seen the interviews with outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, he replied: "I'm not wasting time on this man anymore, he's no longer relevant. He really already belongs to history. "I'll refresh my memory a bit. On May 31, last year, over a year ago, I wrote that I know Bennett very well and that he is going through a full conversion process to the left, at the level of positions and terminology and camp. I think that after yesterday's interviews, it's clear to everyone that this is the case. I'm saying that at the level of values ​​and ideology and worldview, and the camp to which he feels he belongs today, he is deeply, deeply on the left. He doesn't feel any identification now with the camp he was a part of until a little over a year ago. Nitzan Horowitz banned conversion therapy, but he went through it in full." When asked whether Gantz should appoint a chief of staff, he answered in the negative: "No, there should be a government. I think it is undemocratic and unethical for Gantz now to tie the hands of the defense minister and the next prime minister.".