Netanyahu Offers Bennett Rotation for First Year

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he will step aside and allow Yamina leader Naftali Bennett to head the government for the first year of its tenure.

Netanyahu wrote on his social media page that a right-wing government must not be foiled because of personal squabbles.

Bennett’s participation is not sufficient to give the right-wing the majority needed to form a government and the support of the Islamist Ra’am party will still be needed, but Religious Zionist party leader Betzalel Smotrich insisted Monday that he will not join a government reliant on such support.

Smotrich was under constant and extreme pressure to reverse his stance, but after meeting with Rabbi Chaim Druckman earlier Monday he received backing by Rabbi Druckman in his opposition to forming a government based on Ra’am. Rabbi Druckman also called on Bennett to immediately announce he will join a right-wing government and reject the possibility of joining a left-wing government.

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