Bennett said to urge pressure, not pleas, in closed talks on haredi parties

Former prime minister and B'Yachad party head Naftali Bennett has argued in closed-door conversations that the bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot should "threaten the haredi parties, not beg them" during negotiations to form Israel's next government, Walla learned on Sunday.

"We need to make them want to come. We need to show them how much they stand to lose if they don't come. We need to press ahead with the 'Alliance of Those Who Serve' at full force and make them come out of fear of what will happen if they don't," Bennett said, according to the report.

The remarks offer a rare window into the former prime minister's thinking at a moment when his position on the composition of the next government remains one of the largest open questions in Israeli politics. While other leaders in the change bloc have spoken publicly about possible coalition arrangements, Bennett has avoided statements that would indicate which parties he might be prepared to sit with in government.

Bennett, whose election campaign rested heavily on the "Alliance of Those Who Serve" and a pledge to reorder national priorities for those serving in the IDF, has so far declined to address directly whether he would form a government with the haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, parties. He also stayed silent after Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman said he was willing to join a coalition with the haredi parties, despite having pledged the opposite during the campaign.

According to Walla, Bennett has not yet settled on his preferred political path: a government leaning on the support of Arab parties, or one that brings in the haredi parties and would demand compromises over military conscription. Even so, his private comments indicate he is against granting the haredi parties major concessions in exchange for joining a coalition.

Instead, Bennett appears to believe that pressing forward with the core principles of his election campaign, above all changes to conscription policy and benefits for those who serve, would raise the pressure on the haredi parties and make entering the government more appealing than staying in the opposition.

On Tuesday, ahead of the swearing-in of the Knesset, Bennett addressed the coalition negotiations publicly for the first time, though he again stopped short of discussing a partnership with the haredi parties. "I am doing everything to help [Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot] establish a Zionist government of national renewal and bring about the revolution for those who serve," he said.

In a voice message sent to party activists, Bennett said reservists need others to step up and share the burden, invoking the military image of soldiers taking turns carrying a stretcher. He told activists he was working quietly to help Eisenkot form a government as quickly as possible, while cautioning that "we have no small battles ahead of us."

"Former prime minister Bennett and the B'Yachad party are committed to the revolution for those who serve as an urgent necessity for the State of Israel and the IDF," Bennett's office said in a statement.