Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has offered former general Ofer Winter a ministerial post in exchange for withdrawing from the election race. The aim is reportedly to prevent Winter from weakening the political camp led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by splitting the right-wing electorate.
Globalinfo.az reports that Smotrich said in a video address that he was ready to give Winter one of the ministerial posts allocated to his Religious Zionism party during future coalition negotiations.
Under the proposal, Winter could be given the opportunity to establish and lead a body operating in two areas. One would involve creating an agency dealing with the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, while the other would involve creating a body to ensure the military enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews and their integration into society and the labour market.
Smotrich urged Winter to act cautiously to prevent a repeat of what happened in the 1992 elections. At that time, divisions within the right-wing camp split the vote and paved the way for the victory of centre-left forces led by Yitzhak Rabin. Smotrich linked that political outcome to the signing of the Oslo Accords, which he has sharply criticised.
“We must not take such a risk this time!” the minister stressed.
He said votes cast for parties that fail to cross the electoral threshold could seriously affect the results. In Smotrich’s view, if Winter’s Amcha Yisrael party continues its election campaign, the votes of right-wing voters could be split and the position of the political camp supporting Netanyahu could be weakened.
Aliyar Khalil
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