Likud MK says Smotrich, not Bennett, responsible for Netanyahu’s ouster

14 June 2021, 10:25 am

Edit

Likud MK David Bitan at a committee in the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on July 31, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

After Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party spent the last few weeks lambasting Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party and accusing it of thwarting a right-wing government, Likud MK David Bitan shifts the blame to Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich, who vetoed any coalition propped up by outside support the Islamist Ra’am party.

“Smotrich got 5 seats from Likud and should have let us form a minority government,” Bitan tells the Kan public broadcaster. “We asked him to be patient and told him we would bring in two more later. We wanted [Ra’am chief Mansour] Abbas to walk out during the vote [of confidence].

“Religious Zionism is the party that ousted Likud.”