Ya'alon derides Bennett's credentials

In TV interview, Ya’alon suggests Jewish Home leader is arrogant, irresponsible, lacks experience

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon slammed Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, calling out the Jewish Home party leader for his ostensible inexperience and arrogance.

“There are young people who ‘know’ that they will be prime minister. There is a certain arrogance and lack of responsibility [with thinking that],” the Likud MK charged on Saturday in an interview with Channel 2’s “Meet the Press.”

When asked if Bennett, an IDF major (res.) who began his service as a commando in the elite Sayaret Matkal unit, is qualified to serve as minister of defense, Ya’alon suggested that the 42-year-old was not. “The public will be the judge. I when I was discharged from the army, I did not immediately say, ‘I’m going to be prime minister.’ You also need experience in the role of minister of defense — not necessarily military experience.”

Bennett entered the Knesset for the first time in 2013, and has served as economy minister. Some reports have suggested he hopes to become defense minister after the next elections. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month denied reports he had promised Bennett the post.

Bennett was a frequent public critic of the government’s handling of the war against Hamas last summer.

Ya’alon added that it is necessary to sit in the cabinet and learn from others before moving on to more important positions within the government.

Ya’lon served as the strategic affairs minister from 2009-2013 following his first election to the Knesset, having served as IDF chief of staff from 2002-2005. He commanded the IDF during the Second Intifada and Operation Defensive Shield, a large scale offensive against Palestinian terror cells in the West Bank.

“There is still time to gain experience, learn, and so on, to try to pretend [to be qualified] for positions [like defense minister],” Ya’alon quipped.

The comments come against the backdrop of the upcoming March 17, 2015 elections, as Ya’alon’s Likud and Bennett’s Jewish Home parties vie for support from right-wing voters. Recent surveys of likely Israeli voters indicate the Jewish Home party will win 15-16 seats in the upcoming election, a rise from its current 12, while Likud is polling at 23 seats — up from its current 18 and one short of Tzipi Livni and Issac Herzog’s Labor-Hatnua center-left joint list.

Ya’alon’s comments did not mark the first time the defense minister attacked Bennett, as he blasted the Jewish Home leader following reports that he supposedly shared classified information about a special security system designed to combat attack tunnels from Gaza with a colonel in the IDF reserves.