Shmuel Sackett, chairman of Zehut International, spoke to Arutz Sheva on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Zehut party’s convention at the Tel Aviv Port.
Sackett said that Manhigut Yehudit, the faction of the Likud which was led by Moshe Feiglin and from which Zehut was formed, was happy to have joined the Likud but is also happy to have left it. This is because “90% of what we were doing in the last few years was internal Likud battles. Battles on the platform and on the candidates, and battles with the Central Committee members. It got to the point where we have a strong, powerful message to deliver to the Israeli people and all we were doing was fighting with fellow Likud members day and night.”
Zehut, continued Sackett, “is all about leadership, because otherwise you’re just a little sectorial group representing the knitted kippot or the haredim or the secular or whatever. Israeli politics is seriously divided into groups and that’s the downside of what’s happening in this country.”
“We decided not to focus on that issue but rather go the Israeli public,” he stated. “We have answers to the Israeli problems. Whether it’s helping young couples buying homes, or whether it’s security or whether it’s legalizing cannabis or giving parents the ability to educate their children according to their value system. Therefore, we decided to go to the Israeli public with this message, surrounded and focused on Jewish identity. And yes, we’re going for nothing less than leadership of this country.”
The reasons there are so many English speakers in Zehut, opined Sackett, is that “Americans appreciate what true democracy is, and that is why they have gravitated towards the Zehut party. We’re going to have open primaries, the likes of which the state of Israel has never seen before. We are a true, democratic party and Anglos appreciate that.”
Zehut will allow one out of every 10 members of its Knesset slate to be representing Zehut International.
“Obviously, it will be an Israeli citizen, but that person will be elected to that spot by international members, non-Israeli citizens, because we don’t only just want their money. We want their voice, we want their influence, we want to really give them the feeling that we care about them, and that this is their land as well,” said Sackett.