Bennett: Likud pursuing ‘personal legislation’ against me because it thinks it can’t win election

After ministers voted today to advance a bill aimed at hampering former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s next election run, the politician hits back, claiming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is afraid of facing him in a free and fair election.

In a post on social media, Bennett says that the “harder the poison machine against me is working, the more it’s a sign that they understand change is coming.”

“Instead of running against me in a free election, the Likud party is trying to prevent me from running,” he writes. “If they thought they would win, they wouldn’t need to go after personal, retroactive legislation.”

The legislation in question would require any new party established by a chairman whose previous party dissolved within the past seven years to assume responsibility for paying off that party’s outstanding debts before being able to use campaign funds raised for his new party to finance its electoral campaign.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, Yamina has NIS 17 million ($5 million) in debts, while another former Bennett party, Jewish Home, owes NIS 3 million ($913,000).

Bennett asserts that Likud has a far greater current campaign finance debt, and that he was not the most recent party leader of either Jewish Home or Yamina, which were headed by Rafi Peretz and Ayelet Shaked, respectively, after his departure. Therefore, he claims, he is not subject to any such debts.