Jewish Home's Naftali Bennett
Jewish Home's Naftali BennettFlash 90

Jewish Home Chairman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Saturday evening told Channel 2's "Meet the Israeli Press" program that he intends to run for prime minister when Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu retires from the position.

"I think that this government is a good nationalist government," Bennett said. "It's a government led by Netanyahu, and we need to let it govern. "However, when Netanyahu's stint is over, I intend to run for prime minister. All of the changes I made to the Education Ministry, I will bring to the Defense Ministry, Israel's economy, and other spheres."

"Since I first entered public service, I have done everything I could for this country. This is how I acted in the past, and I will do so in the future as well."

Bennett also discussed the rumors that he would run for prime minister as part of the Likud party instead of as part of his current Jewish Home party.

"What the Jewish Home needs to do - well, today, its platform is problematic because it's very narrow, it's seen as a niche-type party. But I believe in this platform, and what we need to do is to open the Jewish Home to new audiences, to the entire nation of Israel," he explained.

Former Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer said, "Bennett wants to bring the settler and religious agenda straight to the Prime Minister's chair. It's a gift to any leftist who runs against him."

MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli (Jewish Home) responded, " Do you mean we [Religious Zionists] are good enough to die for our country, but not good enough to lead it?"

Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan (Jewish Home) said: "Once again we are forced to listen to anti-Religious Zionst racist remarks. It seems that someone feels that we are not worthy of leadership and should limit ourselves to giving up our lives for the state. Bennett will prove him wrong."