MK Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) split from the Yamina party "because it chose to go left," he said.
Speaking with Israel Hayom, Smotrich wondered aloud how it is that two-thirds of the Israeli public votes right-wing, but polls show that the new government will be leftist.
"When the Left is a partner in the government, it sets the tone," he said. "That is why I left [MK Naftali] Bennett (Yamina), who because of personal embarrassments chose to go to the Left."
"So because [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu isn't managing the coronavirus pandemic well enough, we should go with the Left and let it set the tone? He said that he will form a government with [New Hope's Gideon] Sa'ar, [Yesh Atid's Yair] Lapid, [MK] Merav Michaeli (Labor), and [MK Nitzan] Horowitz (Meretz) - there is no goal more important than this right now."
Slamming Yisrael Beytenu Chairman MK Avigdor Liberman, who said that he joined the Left in order to settle accounts, Smotrich said, "He, like two or three other parties, will bring the Left, which had almost disappeared, back into the government, instead of manifesting the right-wing majority among the public."
"Many right-wing voters do not understand this strategy," he added.
Regarding the closure of Ben Gurion International Airport and reports that those allowed to return home on special rescue flights are haredim, Smotrich said: "This is a report which embarrasses journalism. It's an embarrassment. This is a strategy, to broadcast a report on haredim on Friday night, when the haredim and religious people are not watching it (due to the Sabbath laws - ed.)."
He added that the closure is a "move from one extreme to the other - from controlled reopening without quarantine, so that everyone can bring in whatever variant that they want without any supervision, and then a hermetic closure of Israel without any solution, which strands tens of thousands of Israelis around the world."