Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel of the Zionist Spirit party tells Israel National News that contrary to polls showing his party not doing so well, they are in a good position.
“First of all we're doing well, we just need to work harder in order to convince the public in Israel that we are going to actually stop the race to enact the next elections and to bring stability to Israel,” Hendel says. “Our audience is Religious Zionist people, normal people from Israel who believe that we need to be a bridge and not to burn bridges. People that belong to the right – the normal right – they do not identify themselves with Ben Gvir and Smotrich. They do not identify with the Likud Party and they are not left, they cannot vote for Benny Gantz."
When asked how he responds to those who point out that he joined this government which was based on a left-right coalition and the Arab List, and wonder does that mean he is not right wing, he answers:
“I don't think that to be right or left is who you sit with, it’s about your actions, about your outcomes, about the proof of what you put on the table,” Hendel says.
He notes that he was the first communications minister to oversee the installation of fiberoptic lines in Judea and Samaria and who took care of cellphone coverage in Judea and Samaria.
“Let’s check our outcomes and our plans for the future and not try to put slogans on politicians,” he says.
“You have to do it first of all through stability. If you don’t have stability you can’t do anything. You cannot cope with the fact that we have enormous land in the Negev and in the Galilee with the Arab population and you cannot deal with the very expensive prices in Israel… It’s a political solution from my point of view. To have a government that is based only on Netanyahu and Ben Gvir, which they call themselves right wingers but they are not from my point of view. It’s not really stability.”
When asked if he believes Likud is right wing, he replies, “They can say whatever they want but from my point of view I'm checking only outcomes.”
“If the Likud lost the Negev and the Galilee and we have chaos over there and it has become a no man’s land, from my point of view it’s not right wing, it’s something else. And if the Likud one day believe they should create a coalition with Ra’am just because the leader said so, it’s not right wing. If the Likud evacuates certain settlements in Gaza just because the party said so, it’s not right wing. I believe that you need to follow your values and not only one person, even though he is the leader.”