Ayelet Shaked warns Netanyahu: Don’t abandon your right-wing allies

Former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked warned the Likud to adhere to its agreement with its right-wing allies. 

By World Israel News Staff

Ayelet Shaked, head of the Yemina faction, advised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remain loyal to the bloc of right-wing and religious parties he pulled together immediately after the elections, indirectly expressing the fear that he might jettison them when attempting to build a unity government with center-left rival Blue and White.

“If there is a betrayal of the ideological right and religious Zionism, everyone will bear the consequences,” Shaked said in an interview with Radio Jerusalem.

“We will be a combative opposition, and the Likud party will have to explain to the right-wing camp why it is dismantling the right-wing government and throwing the right-wing into the opposition,” she said.

The Likud, however, has appeared to be adhering to its agreement with its right-wing and religious allies. Likud party lead negotiator Yariv Levin has made it clear to the other side of the table that he’s negotiating not just on behalf of the Likud, but for the entire right-wing bloc, which numbers 55 Knesset seats.

Blue and White has been sending messages that the Likud negotiators appear to be only negotiating for their own party. This may be a tactic to create dissension in the ranks of the Right, pundits say.

Although Yemina announced it was splitting up mere hours after the election, it is continuing to work together as a single bloc through the negotiation process of forming a government.

Israel Hayom reports there are some misgivings about the split, which created anger among those who voted for it.

The faction is made up of three parties, the New Right, the Jewish Home, and the National Union. Jewish Home and National Union will continue to operate as a unit. The New Right will go on its own.

Yemina won seven seats in the election.

Ayelet ShakedBenjamin NetanyahuIsraeli elections 2019Yemina