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      Bennett to Netanyahu: 'Not Too Late to Make Amends'

      Bayit Yehudi head Naftali Bennett calls on PM Netanyahu to patch things up with the Bayit Yehudi party before it's too late.
      By Gil Ronen
      First Publish: 2/20/2013, 10:06 PM

      Naftali Bennett
      Naftali Bennett
      Israel news photo: Flash 90

      Bayit Yehudi head Naftali Bennett calls on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday to patch things up with the Bayit Yehudi party before it's too late.

      "We are at a historic junction and the ball is in the prime minister's court," Bennett told a party conference in Jerusalem's Binyanei Hauma. "There needs to be a decision – do we listen to the voice of the people or do we miss the greatness of the moment.

      "The weight on the prime minister's shoulders is very heavy and we want to lend him a shoulder," Bennett said. "We understand the complexity of running the country. This is the most complex country in the world. There is no job on earth as difficult."

      In a reference to Likud's hurtful election campaign that targeted religious Zionism and its rabbis, Bennett added: "For many decades, there was a natural partnership between Likud and religious Zionists, but in the last campaign we were brutally attacked. Something in the partnership was frayed, but it is not too late to make amends."

      Bennett has formed a tactical pact with secularist Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party, which stipulates that neither party will enter a coalition without the other. Bennett has said that it was Netanyahu who drove him into Lapid's arms when his election campaign attacked Bayit Yehudi with venom.