Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked predicted Monday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will serve for one more term as premier before retiring from politics.
Shaked, who along with Education Minister Naftali Bennett recently broke away from the Jewish Home party to form the New Right (Hayamin Hahadash) faction over the weekend, spoke at an event hosted by Calcalist Monday morning, touching on the political prospects for the coming election.
During her address, Shaked predicted that Netanyahu would serve for one final term as Prime Minister following the elections to the 21st Knesset, slated for April 9th, before retiring from politics.
“My estimation is that this will be the Prime Minister’s final term, since he’s not young. We don’t know what will happen with the investigations, but I hope that the cases against him will be closed, allowing him to finish his term. But I really don’t know what will happen.”
Netanyahu, 69, has served as premier for four terms – three of them consecutive – and is on track to becoming the longest-serving Prime Minister in Israel’s history if he remains in office by July 16th. Current polls show Netanyahu’s Likud leading in the upcoming election by a wide margin.
Shaked expressed optimism regarding her newly-established party’s prospects in the 2019 election.
“The joint efforts between myself and Bennett will win a lot of seats,” said Shaked.
Recent polls show the New Right winning anywhere from six to 14 seats.
“We’re going into the unknown,” continued Shaked. “We didn’t expect to win 20 mandates in the first poll. Three months before the election, the polls really don’t mean anything, so there’s no reason right now to deal with the polls. We need to deal with our work.”