While Likud welcomes Jewish Home into its coalition, MKs for the party should not overstate its contribution to the victory in forming a right-wing government in this year’s elections, said MK Yariv Levin.
In an interview with Army Radio, Levin said that Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett would be a “senior minister” in the new government, but that was because Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wanted him in the government – and not because Likud “owed” Jewish Home anything.
Earlier, Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked said that Jewish Home had helped Likud win the elections at great sacrifice to itself, to the extent that it “donated its limbs” to ensure that Netanyahu and not Zionist Union/Labor head Yitzhak Herzog would form the government.
“These are strange claims,” said Levin. “Each party does its best to persuade voters to choose it, and we were able to convince voters to the extent that we received 30 seats.”
Last week, Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely credited voters that would have been expected to vote for Jewish Home or Yachad – Ha’am Itanu for putting Likud over the top.
The 2015 elections were “a great moment for religious Zionism,” Hotovely wrote on Facebook. “At the moment of truth, a whole community of voters turned to the Likud, which was able to bring about the party’s great victory, despite all odds.”
Hotovely said that Netanyahu had indeed “trolled” for Jewish Home votes, but she justified it by saying that the Likud had no choice.
“We did this out of great love for Jewish Home voters,” she wrote. “Our efforts saved the state from a leftist government, and will allow us to establish a right-wing government without surrendering to the media dictates that would have demanded a unity government” had Likud gotten fewer seats.