Ben Gvir: Netanyahu enthusiastic about my demand to be police minister

Far-right Religious Zionism candidate Itamar Ben Gvir says Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed his demand to be police minister.

Ben Gvir tells Army Radio that he raised the issue with Netanyahu when they met last Thursday and that the Likud leader was supportive of the idea, should he form the next government.

“I’m not quoting word-for-word, but there was considerable enthusiasm” for the idea, said Ben Gvir. “He and his people said it would bring in votes from outside the [Netanyahu-led] bloc,” Ben Gvir says.

Religious Zionism is forecast to become the third-largest party after the vote, while the bloc is polling just short of a majority.

Meanwhile, the current public security minister, Omer Barlev of Labor, fumes at Ben Gvir’s demand, calling him “a draft-dodging cowardly thug, who waves his gun around while hiding behind a truck protected by security personnel.”