Tel-Chai Nation

According to the Jewish Press, the Yamina alliance may be on the verge of a breakup:

Senior officials in the Yamina party are suggesting that the talks between Chairman Naftali Bennett and Bezalel Smotrich regarding a joint run have reached a dead end and are currently on the verge of exploding, Reshet Bet radio reported Tuesday morning.

Apart from the debate over whose people get the higher slots on the list, there exists a significant gap between Bennett and Smutrich with regard to the question of building a coalition the day after the election. Bennett is interested in the possibility of forming a coalition with the center-left parties, including Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, which is projected to receive between 14 and 18 seats – but Smotrich has made it painfully clear in his talks with Bennett that this is not acceptable to him and that he could not possibly join such a move.

And this is a confirmation Bennett's taking a dangerous risk here, to say nothing of betraying Netanyahu's crowd, after all the hard work they did to make improvements Bennett and Ayelet Shaked didn't actually bring about, such as recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capitol, and even approval of housing units in Judea/Samaria. And if Lapid's not willing to take a hard stance on Iran, then for Bennett to join up with him will say quite a bit about where he really stands on Islamofascism to boot.

A serious dispute has also emerged between the two Yamina leaders over Bennett’s plan to focus the campaign only on the Corona issue – from the health and economic perspectives. Smotrich demands that other issues be included in the party’s platform, such as reforming the country’s legal system, the treatment of Jewish tradition in the country, and the future of the Judea and Samaria settlement—most notably the imposition of Israeli law on the Jewish communities in the liberated territories.

A strong clue Bennett's not really a supporter of Israel's historical territories, and neither he nor Shaked actually improved the judicial system either.

Currently, the Yamina party led by Bennett with Smotrich in it has dropped in the polls to 12 seats, after having already reached more than 20 seats. The factor that changed Yamina’s fate was the resignation of Gideon Saar from the Likud when all the center-right votes that were parked with Yamina moved happily to Saar’s parking lot.

As a matter of fact, it's not like they were ever there to start with. I just hope they aren't there for Saar either, since he's clearly a bad lot as well, and so is Zeev Elkin, if he betrays the Likud as he did. But what is clear is that at this point, Bennett could end up becoming more of a liability than a great aid for Yamina, as it becomes clear he's not made of iron in his defense of Israel. That nobody in his own party is challenging him for leadership says something too. It's time Bennett retire from the Knesset.

Labels: dhimmitude, iran, islam, Israel, Jerusalem, jihad, Knesset, Moonbattery, political corruption, terrorism