Ayelet Shaked
Ayelet ShakedSpokesperson

Strategic Advisor Moshe Debby spoke on Thursday about the conduct of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett after the dissolution of the Knesset.

"If I had to speculate, Bennett will not continue in politics. He will take a time-out, that would be the best way to define it. For a man who was Prime Minister, to return to the opposition, in the back seats without hope of returning to a big position, it is not like Netanyahu who is chairman of a large party and he says he can go to the opposition for a few years and come back. My guess is that Bennett will not run in the next election. We may see Ayelet Shaked run as chairwoman of Yamina and that is where it will go. That possibility exists," Debby said in an interview with Radio 103FM.

On Shaked, he said, "Politics is very cruel. You can very quickly climb up the ladder and then crash. That's what happens in Israeli politics. Ultimately, the big base that you need in order to run is being in a large party, and she doesn’t have that. Even her desire to be Prime Minister one day is impossible to do from a party like Yamina, were it to win ten or 12 seats."

"There is very strong opposition in the Likud to accepting her, she will run over some of them, move up [at their expense], Regev will be the last to want to see her in the Likud because she will grab the top spot reserved for a woman, and the men will not want her because she has to be a minister. It is not that anyone is waiting for her in the Likud. She can take some steps, like trying to form a government in the current Knesset. The chances of that happening are very slim, but Netanyahu changed his position. At first he was against this move, he only wanted elections. In the end, Netanyahu says, 'Wait, I'm not sure I will have 61.' He knows how fragile things are," concluded Debby.