Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday night urged the establishment of a broad national unity government, in the format of the 1984 rotation government.
Speaking at a campaign event in Efrat, which was covered by i24NEWS, Bennett said, "We will create a national unity government, in a style similar to what we had here, for those who remember, in 1984, with [Shimon] Peres and [Yitzhak] Shamir. We just need to get back to work. We need to break this bloc mentality. We work together with people in a tank in Rafah, but suddenly we come back here and can't manage to run the country together with someone who holds a different position than ourselves."
Opposition party leaders criticized Bennett's remarks. Yisrael Beytenu Chairman MK Avigdor Liberman tweeted a response, tagging Bennett, opposition leader MK Yair Lapid, and MK Gadi Eisenkot.
"We must never join Netanyahu under any condition or under any circumstances," he wrote.
Lapid shared the tweet, writing, "I agree."
Gadi Eisenkot responded, "We will win the upcoming elections. Anyone who held a position on October 7, including members of the Cabinet and especially Prime Minister [Bennett] Netanyahu, is unworthy, unfit, and should not hold public office."
Democrats leader MK Yair Golan wrote: "Naftali, Israel needs fixing. The Democrats, a party with a strong democratic liberal backbone and values, will not lend a hand to a government with those responsible for the October 7 failure, for division, and for the systematic destruction of the rule of law."