Senior Yamina officials, including Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich and former Education Minister Naftali Bennett deflected the Left's recent attack on Yamina Chairwoman Ayelet Shaked.
According to the claims, emissaries sent behalf of Shaked offered to influence the Attorney General on behalf of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, as part of Shaked's attempts to get a place saved in the Likud.
"Oh, we were waiting for this. People are starting to get nervous even earlier than expected," Smotrich said. "So I ask you - please continue. Every time you attack Ayelet Shaked and the others on the list, you just bring Yamina more and more supporters, more and more Knesset seats."
"We're waiting patiently for the next problem invented." He added that Shaked acts with honesty and integrity: "It won't help you - rulers are crooked next to her," he said.
"Ayelet Shaked is idealistic and she went into politics in order to do good for the citizens of Israel," Bennett said. "As Justice Minister, she worked with courage, seeing only the good of the State. If someone did suggest such a thing, it certainly was not on her behalf."
"Shaked will lead the Yamina party to great success in the elections, despite the personal attacks against her."
On Monday night, Shaked said the reports were "a low and ugly attempt to discredit me here
" If the things quoted have been said by one person or another, they are certainly grave, but they have no connection with me and have not been said in my knowledge.
"I have never spoken to the Attorney General about criminal cases, let alone the Netanyahu files. I trust the public to be smarter than that."
כאמור, עיתון ''הארץ'' דיווח כי מקורבי שקד הציעו לראש הממשלה נתניהו להשפיע על היועמ"ש לטובתו, במסגרת ניסיונותיה לקבל שיריון בליכוד. ״יש כאן ניסיון נמוך ומכוער להכפיש אותי", הגיבה שקד. ''אם הדברים שמצוטטים נאמרו על-ידי אדם כזה או אחר, הם חמורים בהחלט, אך אין להם קשר אליי ולא נאמרו בידיעתי''.
שרת המשפטים לשעבר הדגישה: ''מעולם לא דיברתי עם היועץ המשפטי לממשלה על תיקים פליליים, כל שכן על תיקי נתניהו. אני סומכת על הציבור שהוא יותר חכם מזה״.