For the past few weeks, Yamina MK Ayelet Shaked has been crisscrossing the country, holding events and meetings. She doesn't hug, doesn't kiss, doesn't schmooze. She just sticks strictly to the talking points that are important to her, smiles occasionally, and never gets sucked into any kind of small talk ("I don't like to chit chat").
She speaks with the same level of determination in front of hundreds of activists at the party conference in central Israel as she does in front of 20 elderly men and one young woman at a community center in a small town in the south. And when one of the men, who seems to be the oldest, tells her at the end of the event, "I'm not convinced," she takes the time to listen, always focused, and answers him, succinctly.
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Since December 2018, Ayelet Shaked has managed to form the New Right and quit Habayit Hayehudi together with Naftali Bennett; languish with her party outside parliament after the April 2019 elections; get fired from her position as justice minister; lead Yamina – a faction comprising the New Right, National Union, and Habayit Hayehudi parties – in the second elections of 2019, held in September; get just seven seats, and be pushed down to third place in the Yamina list for the 2020 elections.
While her male colleagues – Bennett, Habayit Hayehudi leader Rafi Peretz, and National Union head Bezalel Smotrich – all got senior portfolios like Defense, Education, and Transportation, she was left outside the government. She is now in charge of revving the voters, who are tired and apathetic to any political message or promise.
"This was a tough year," she admits. "A tough and exhausting election year. For a Likud member of parliament, elections are not a big deal, especially if you don't need to go through a primary. For party leaders, and especially small party leaders fighting for every vote, elections are a whole different story."
"I can feel the fatigue on the ground. Everyone is tired. The messages repeat themselves, there's no bandwidth, no interest. People don't have the patience, I get it. For most of them, this is the fourth consecutive election, if you include the municipal elections, too.
"But this fatigue is really dangerous. These elections are critical for the right, for the national religious, for the settlements and the whole country. I have no choice but to work very hard because we need to be an influential factor in the decisions that will be taken, whether it's a right-wing government or a left-wing government, sovereignty in Judea and Samaria or negotiating with the Palestinians."
Q: Don't you feel that you've become less powerful, going from being the justice minister to someone who didn't even pass the electoral threshold almost overnight?
"Obviously, as justice minister, my position was stronger. But that's political life, and I don't waste time and energy on complaining and dealing with the past. I know how to land quickly on my feet, look ahead and focus on the target."
Q: Meanwhile, Bennett has been named the defense minister.
"The prime minister offered us two options: Either get two portfolios – with the choice being between Diaspora Affairs, Agriculture, or Social Affairs – or one portfolio for Naftali, Defense. Naftali called me, we discussed it, and I thought the right move was for him to take Defense. First and foremost, for the country, which hadn't had a Defense Minister for a year and a half, and also because there is no one who is more deserving of that role than Naftali.
"Our agreement is that we get portfolios equal in their importance, but this time I decided to pass so that he could get Defense. Next time I won't compromise on getting two equal portfolios. That's it, and for now, I'm fine with not being a minister."
Q: After what you went through last year, is your relationship with Bennett as strong as before?
"Of course. We are full partners in this journey. In political life there are many difficult situations and tests, but when there is real trust you can get over the crises and defuse the landmines. Naftali and I are not friends outside work, and our families don't spend time together. But in a work environment, we know how to work very well together."
Q: Weren't you angry with him after the New Right's failure in April's election?
"We decided on the New Right move together. Yes, he pushed for it, but we did it together. There's no reason to discuss it anymore. I've no intention to keep digging up the past. I'm just not like that. How will that help me? The results spoke for themselves, and that's why we reached the conclusion that it's best to merge, all of the national-religious [parties], with its full range, and also bring ideological, secular right–wing people such as myself."
Q: The latest statements made by Rabbi Rafi Peretz on the LGBTQ community hurt you, especially with liberal secular voters.
"I sincerely hope they didn't. I say to all New Right supporters: You have Naftali, you have me, you have Matan Kahana, Idit Silman, Sarah Beck and Shirly Pinto. We are all very liberal and welcoming. Rafi had a few very unfortunate statements that should not have been said. I, of course, oppose the things he said and don't support them in any manner. I've already said that if it were my children who told me they were gay, I would accept, honor, and love them, with no doubt whatsoever. It goes without saying. But this man is so much more than a few unnecessary statements. He is an IAF pilot, an educator of generations, a man who after he was thrown out of Gush Katif [in the 2005 disengagement from Gaza] founded a new community in the Halutza dunes."
Q: And that's supposed to erase his offensive opinions against LGBTQ people and their families?
"I'm not saying that. But one mustn't erase the whole person, and furthermore, one must look at the whole list. I understand there's a liberal audience who struggles with these statements. But there is no party where 100% of the candidates are completely acceptable to this or that voter.
"It's time to stop being finicky only with us. It's only with us that we always have to be a perfect fit. No one demonizes candidates of other parties as they do ours."
Q: That's not true, look what just happened with Yoaz Hendel from Blue and White.
"I have a feeling that if Smotrich had said things like that, he would have been butchered [politically]."
Q: In the earlier round, when you led Yamina, you got seven seats. That's what the polls are giving you now for the upcoming elections.
"We thought we'd get more than seven, but under the circumstances that wasn't so bad. Not great, but not bad. The political system is tough, and then, just like today, Netanyahu fought us. He kept saying on every stage: 'Don't vote for Yamina, vote for the Likud.' It's pathological, it's a routine that repeats itself every election."
"This time as well we're in a very difficult and aggressive election. The only one who is hurting the right-wing bloc is the Likud. Instead of speaking to right-wing voters, encouraging and mobilizing them to come out and vote, to get them motivated, to tell them about all their achievements, they keep talking about us, with this strange obsession. I don't understand how this is supposed to help in forming a right-wing government.
"The voter turnout in the Right and national-religious sectors fell in the past election. It's difficult to motivate people. So, how do these internal wars inside the national-religious sector help?"
Q: Maybe it's directed more at you and Bennett, and not at Yamina or the national-religious public?
"I don't know who it's directed at and I don't want to analyze it, certainly not in the media. I'm looking at the facts, and those are the facts. In every election, the Likud chooses to attack us. The Likud likes it when the national-religious [parites] are small, weak, pathetic, with only the Science and Space portfolio. They don't want us with Justice or Defense. That's less convenient. Why? Because we challenge them.
"In every election, the Likud tries to squash us. They don't want someone to their right who is ideologically strong, who challenges them. We're the only ones who will block a Palestinian state. In Donald Trump's 'deal of the century' there is a great opportunity, with implementing sovereignty in Judea and Samaria as a first step, after which no Palestinian state can be founded. If the first step is negotiating with Palestinians, that would pose a grave danger."
Q: Likud Minister Yariv Levin recently said that Yamina is a mirage. That by founding the New Right and not merging with the far-right Otzma Yehudit party you endanger the right-wing bloc, and that after the previous elections you were talking with Blue and White.
"I suggest that the Likud, if they want to succeed in the upcoming elections and not harm the right-wing, that they should be the ones to convince Otzma Yehudit to drop out, and not attack Yamina. And if it's difficult for the Likud to deal with us not merging with Otzma Yehudit, they can merge with them themselves. Why doesn't the Likud put [Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar] Ben Gvir on their own list? Maybe he would fit. And if not the Likud, then Shas, or United Torah Judaism. There's no need to force everything on us.
"The accusations of losing votes can be directed at the Likud and Netanyahu. They knew this was going to happen. The one who is currently hurting the right-wing bloc is Netanyahu and the Likud, and they're taking aim at us."
Q: If this is how the Likud always treats Yamina and the national-religious parties, why are you part of the right-wing bloc?
"Because we are ideologically right-wing, and we want to implement our policies. That is why Naftali and I entered politics, even though we had many other options for making a lot of money and living a good life outside of politics.
"A right-wing government is the best constellation for us to influence ideologically. Netanyahu is the person leading the largest right-wing party today. He leads the Likud. We are loyal to our ideology and are trying to put aside everything that isn't ideology and insist on thinking rationally, not emotionally.
Q: Bennett announced you would not join a Gantz government, yet you still held talks with Blue and White and they offered you the Defense and Justice portfolios.
"Blue and White offered us Defense and Justice, but we did not negotiate with them over entering a Gantz government. I met with Gantz a few times, and in every meeting, I tried to convince him to join a unity government. I told him he's making a mistake on a personal level because he could have been prime minister in six months' time.
"It's also a big mistake on the national level. Another election is not good for the country. I told him that we will guarantee that Netanyahu adheres to the rotation agreement. I also tried hard to convince [Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor] Lieberman to join the right-wing government. I was scared of dragging the country through another election, yet here we are for the third time. Who would have believed it? I didn't."
Q: Why are you ruling out Blue and White? It's not a left-wing party, it has right-wingers in it.
"It only has a few people that you can call rightists. Blue and White is a left-wing party who not say that's what they are. Gantz is left-wing. Many of the party members are left-wing. Why be ashamed of that? It's beyond me. But if Gantz can't say it, left-wing voters shouldn't be surprised that 'left' has become a derogatory term. What's wrong with you? Stand by your beliefs. I stand by mine, I'm proud of them, I'm fine with them. I don't stutter when I declare I'm right-wing."
Q: If a unity government is formed, will you be part of it?
"I prefer to be part of a right-wing government with the ultra-Orthodox. Definitely. And I think it is completely possible and realistic that a right-wing government with the ultra-Orthodox will be formed after these elections. But if the option is a unity government of the right-wing bloc together with Blue and White, instead of going to elections again, of course, a unity government is preferable. In a government with the right-wing bloc and Blue and White we will have less influence because we're not necessary, and what worries me most, in this case, is the possibility that negotiations will be held with the Palestinians."
Q: And a government led by Netanyahu, this time after his trial begins?
"Netanyahu is the leader of the largest right-wing party. The Likud chose him despite his indictments, and now we'll see what the voters have to say. If the voters choose him despite his indictments, and Netanyahu manages to form a coalition, he will be the prime minister and we hope to be a significant part of it. The law allows this."
Q: What ministry are you hoping to be appointed to if you are in the government?
"I would very much like to continue what I began in the Justice Ministry. It's not the only option for me, but it's a very interesting and diverse portfolio, and I still have a lot to do as justice minister."
Q: Such as?
"Such as passing the Basic Law: Legislation that would include the override clause [the passage of which would allow the Knesset to re-enact laws that have been struck down as unconstitutional by the High Court of Justice], with a majority of 61 members of Knesset. To hold public hearings in the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee for judges who are candidates for the Supreme Court, so that the public can get to know them and understand their legal positions.
"I want to define and limit, in rules or legislation, the authority of the attorney general. In addition, I want to open up the State Attorney's Office to jurists who are not part of it."
Q: Many of your achievements as justice minister had to do with the Judicial Nominations Committee.
"During my tenure, 334 excellent and professional judges were appointed. We did a lot of serious work on that committee. Those judges should not be discredited, and there is no contradicting the fact that as justice minister I advanced the agenda on which I was elected. I did not try to hide for one minute that my agenda was creating diversity among judges, especially by appointing conservative judges.
"But the diversity did not end with that. When I started out, I found there was not even one judge from the Ethiopian community. That's unreasonable. Together with all the committee members we found candidates and appointed two excellent judges. We also appointed ultra-Orthodox judges and a female Druze judge. Until then there were only male Druze judges."
While visiting the town of Neta in the Lachish region, Shaked says she "first of all trusts female voters. The women in the national-religious sector are lionesses. They're activists, educated, perseverant, strong, powerful, super serious. They raise children, they have a career. That's where you find so much strength and wisdom.
"I need us to get 9–10 seats, because the women on our list are amazing. We have to get them in, we simply must. People like to portray us as unenlightened, but we're the only party where women are half of the top 10 on the list."
Q: And they're all, except you, in slots 7 to 10. When the polls aren't giving you more than seven seats.
"According to the polls we're between 7–8 seats, and there were polls where we got 10. That's the goal, and we're working very hard to get there. It's not a far-flung dream.
"We represent women from all over the spectrum – Torah abiding religious women, liberal religious women, secular women – and we all work together. They're fantastic, all of them. Orit [Strook]'s agenda is the Land of Israel, and when I was justice minister, she was my informal advisor on settlements."
Q: In one of your campaign videos, you called on women to vote for you, "for your daughter, for your granddaughter, so that they will also be able to raise their heads and know that they can do anything." Women face no obstacles in Israel? For example, serving in combat units? Getting paid as much as men? Being excluded from the public sphere?
"Women can do anything and are capable of everything, there is no question about it, and I completely believe this. Of course, there is work to be done to advance equality, and it's complex, and in Israel, it requires study and analysis.
"In the private sector there's built-in pay discrimination, but women are also demanding less. In the IDF only eight percent of jobs are blocked off to women, and that's okay. The main purpose of the army is to win wars, and the army decided professionally what works and what doesn't when it comes to integrating women.
"Studying separately in academia is not an obstacle nor discrimination, quite the opposite. When Bennett was Education Minister and I was justice minister we pushed for that with all our power. I fought the legal system and he fought against the Council for Higher Education and the Planning and Budgeting Committee, responsible for funding higher education in Israel, because we knew that without that, many groups in the ultra-Orthodox sector that go to work would not come to study.
"I don't feel that I met obstacles as a woman. On the contrary, I feel that the fact I am a woman is simply an advantage."
Q: There were attempts to block you in your own party. It is said that Peretz didn't agree for you to be pictured next to him in campaign billboards, and even disapproved of your name on them. In closed conversations, he has opposed your return to the faction.
"The fact is that I was first in the list for the last elections. And another fact is that today I am number three in the Yamina list, which was formed exactly how I wanted it to. That's all."
