Now that the new government has been sworn in and the Yamina party's public fights with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ended with the religious Zionist faction in the opposition, outgoing Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich is saying that Netanyahu never wanted him in the coalition.
"I'm at peace with the decision to join the opposition," Smotrich, who heads the National Union party that is part of the Yamina faction, told Israel Hayom.
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"It's the right decision. We couldn't allow ourselves to join the coalition with Netanyahu's humiliating, contemptuous attitude. I heard him say that he wasn't closing the door on us joining, but he never opened it," Smotrich said.
According to Smotrich, who is also the leader of the National Union party, "this is how Netanyahu treats religious Zionism: he kicked [Yuli] Edelstein out as Knesset speaker; he stabbed him in the back. He shoved [Zeev] Elkin out of the Environmental Protection Ministry and cobbled together a portfolio of nothing for him; and he appointed Tzipi Hotovely minister of nothing, and even that's temporary until he can send her abroad."
"We didn't ask Netanyahu to pay any political price he couldn't afford. No one [in Yamina] was asking for the health portfolio. Edelstein is there even though he didn't ask for it -- Netanyahu tried to 'sell' the Health Ministry to Blue and White, but couldn't. No one wanted the Transportation Ministry, either. On the very last day he barely managed to convince Miri Regev to take transportation. We didn't ask for the religious affairs portfolio, because he'd have had to fight with Aryeh Deri. We were asking for the ability to really do something," he said.
Smotrich said he respects Habayit Hayehudi leader Rafi Peretz, who broke ranks and joined the coalition, but added, "No one thinks that if Habayit Hayehudi under Rabbi Rafi Peretz runs alone next time, they'll make it past the minimum electoral threshold. Unfortunately, he is burying a 100-year-old party."
Smotrich said that after knowing Peretz for a year, "There isn't a single political mistake he hasn't made."
"I want to honor him, he's a rabbi, he's taught lots of students, done good things, but he isn't right for politics," Smotrich said.
