Asking about ceding to Eisenkot, Bennett says he’ll ‘do anything needed to win’

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, campaigning to retake the office, coyly avoids explicitly answering whether he will be willing to get in line behind Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot, who many see as the strongest challenger for the position.

“I’ll do anything needed in order to win and fix Israel,” the Together party head tells Army Radio.

Expounding on his bona fides and past experience, Bennett says simply “changing the driver” to anyone aside from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not enough to deal with the country’s various issues.

Pressed on the question, however, he allows that “I’ll do whatever is needed in any job.”

“My obsession is not the job… the country is falling apart and we need to fix it,” he says, before rattling off various reasons he is most fit to be premier.

With polls showing both the pro-Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu blocs struggling to reach a majority without help from Arab parties, Bennett says avoiding another stalemate and repeated election cycles — as occurred from 2019 to 2021 — is the responsibility of voters, rather than politicians being willing to compromise in coalition talks.

“More rounds of elections would be terrible, so the public this time can’t stand on the sidelines,” he says. “You can’t say, ‘let the politicians deal with it, I’m going to the beach or abroad.’ That’s not a thing.”