Israeli Elections: Bennett laments that Netanyahu took his vote again

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded in removing votes from Naftali Bennett for the fourth election in a row, sources close to Bennett lamented Tuesday.

Bennett’s allies complained that Netanyahu persuaded Yamina voters this time not to move to his Likud Party but to Bennett’s old friend Zionist Religious Party, MK Bezalel Smotrich.

In a last-minute attempt to get votes from Smotrich, Bennett posted a video of his American strategist George Birnbaum saying there was no statistical chance according to his polls that Smotrich’s party would not go beyond the election stage 3.25%. Birnbaum spoke with Bennett in the video and urged religious-Zionist voters to let Yamina finish with double figures.

“With a few more votes, you get to 10, and that will give Yamina a lot of power in the next government to implement the plans that you want to implement,” Birnbaum said.

Smotrich appealed to the Central Electoral Committee to call the video illegal.

“Bennett knows we’re on four and a half sets and that one chair makes a big difference to us and doesn’t make any difference to him,” Smotrich said.

Bennett campaigned, shook hands and kissed babies at malls and polling stations in Netanya, Petah Tikva, Herzliya, Ra’anana, Kfar Saba and Givat Shmuel. He ran into Smotrich in Givat Shmuel.

When Bennett voted in Ra’anana, he was greeted by elements saying he was the next Prime Minister.

“We will bring the change; a government that doesn’t care, “Bennett told the public.

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