Yisrael Eichler
Yisrael EichlerHezki Baruch

MK Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism) on Tuesday claimed that Religious Zionism Chairman MK Bezalel Smotrich "wants to destroy the Torah world."

"MK Bezalel Smotrich wants to destroy the Torah world," Eichler claimed to Kol Hai Radio, referring to the fact that Smotrich refuses to sit together with United Arab List (Ra'am) chief MK Mansour Abbas and has dubbed him a terror supporter.

"If Abbas begins to express support for terror after we form a government with him, we'll think about it then," he said.

He added that he believes Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "is responsible for the fact that we need Abbas."

Regarding whether his party would sit in a government with Yesh Atid Chairman MK Yair Lapid, Eichler said: "Lapid wants to uproot us, from the root, and therefore we will not sit with him."

"There are always people with ideology and those without. Ours is decided by Israel's sages. I remember that [former Prime Minister Menachem] Begin would not sit with the Left, for example. Today, [Yamina Chairman MK Naftali] Bennett and [New Hope Chairman MK Gideon] Sa'ar say that they are 'right' but 'anyone but Netanyahu.' Everyone wants to be leader, that's the reason the Left always fails, because they wanted to be leaders.

"The elite rules here, and we and the Arabs don't receive anything. We need to learn from Abbas' practicality. Whether Netanyahu decides that he is willing to let Gantz or Bennett be first in a rotation - we don't decide who the prime minister will be, and it doesn't matter to us who it is."

He added: "Abbas is acting the most intelligently of all: He reached a conclusion that he doesn't want speeches, so they made an Arab committee for him which will handle all the issues relating to his society."