The official reportedly believed that “Netanyahu was looking for continued calm and quiet understandings, while a new government would be dragged into an operation in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas had allegedly unsuccessfully attempted to influence Ra’am head Mansour Abbas to join a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2021, Israeli journalist Amit Segal reported on Thursday.
According to Segal, a senior Hamas official had called Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas from Qatar, allegedly demanding he aid Netanyahu retain the premiership.
The official reportedly believed that “Netanyahu was looking for continued calm and quiet understandings, while a new government would be dragged into an operation in the Gaza Strip.”
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett then backed Segal’s claim on X/Twitter, emphasizing that “this is not a claim made by political rivals, it is not a theory, these are the facts that Amit Segal has just exposed.”
“The same senior Hamas official explicitly asked Abbas not to join Bennett, because they were afraid of a government led by me and knew it would not allow them to arm themselves and slaughter us, as they did on October 7.”
Bennett invited Smotrich to 2021 gov’t before Arab party
On Thursday, Bennett said he would not boycott National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party), according to leaked recordings released that day.
The comments sparked speculation that he would be willing to form a government with right-wing party leaders after the upcoming elections, scheduled to take place no later than October.
Regarding his term as prime minister that began in 2021, Bennett said he had invited Smotrich to join his government.
“If Smotrich had come, there would have been no need to rely on an Arab party,” he said. “But he preferred that I rely on an Arab party so that he could get angry about it, rather than come and be part of the solution. So, this boycott needs to be broken.”
Bennett became prime minister in June 2021 and entered a rotation government with opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid). His government was the first in Israel’s history to include an Arab party.
It added the Ra’am Party to the coalition in a controversial move that is cited in the current round of elections.
Keshet Neev contributed to this report.