Former Religious Affairs Minister MK Matan Kahana recently requested that Alternate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett support the National Unity Party he joined after leaving the Yamina party.
Bennett himself supported Kahana's move from Yamina, but he is currently refusing to openly support National Unity or any other party, not even discreetly.
At the beginning of the week, Bennett reiterated that he has no intent on returning to politics. His office stated that "After a decade in politics, during which he served as finance minister, minister of education, defense minister, and prime minister, he intends on taking a time-out from public life. "The year of the Bennett government proved that it is possible to run a country in a matter-of-fact manner, together, while cooperating and dialoguing among parties with different positions."
Bennett called on all party leaders to "show responsibility, to moderate and calm the discourse and not to allow internal quarrels to tear our country apart from within."
On Friday, Channel 12 News reported that the former prime was recently presented with an in-depth study and a series of polls that suggest that a party led by him would safely pass the electoral threshold.
According to the report, the data presented to Bennett shows that a party led by him would tip the scales and would take votes mainly from Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, but also from voters who are still undecided, the vast majority of them national religious.