\n<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
Hamas<\/a> had allegedly unsuccessfully attempted to influence Ra\u2019am head Mansour Abbas to join a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2021, Israeli journalist Amit Segal reported on Thursday.<\/p>\n According to Segal, a senior Hamas official had called Ra’am<\/a> leader Mansour Abbas from Qatar, allegedly demanding he aid Netanyahu retain the premiership.<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n On Thursday, Bennett said he would not boycott<\/a> National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party), according to leaked recordings released that day.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Regarding his term as prime minister that began in 2021, Bennett said he had invited Smotrich to join his government.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Smotrich had come, there would have been no need to rely on an Arab party,\u201d he said. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Bennett became prime minister in June 2021 and entered a rotation government with opposition leader Yair Lapid<\/a> (Yesh Atid). His government was the first in Israel\u2019s history to include an Arab party.<\/p>\n It added the Ra\u2019am Party to the coalition in a controversial move that is cited in the current round of elections.<\/p>\n Keshet Neev contributed to this report. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nBennett invited Smotrich to 2021 gov’t before Arab party<\/h3>\n