Naftali Bennett has been waging a battle in recent days to win over secular voters for his “Bennett 2026” party after beginning to slip in the polls.

Last week, he added the founder of an anti-Chareidi organization to his party list, a figure at the forefront of the battle against the Olam HaTorah.

However, Bennett’s statements in an interview on Monday morning with Army Radio went far beyond the anti-Chareidi agenda, aiming at the heart of the most basic Jewish values and religious status quo. Bennett, who formerly headed the religious Yamina and Bayit Yehudi parties, made shocking public statements in support of public Chillul Shabbos and non-halachic marriage.

“Public transportation should be allowed on Shabbos in every city that wants it,” he said.

He also expressed his support for civil marriage in Israel for “anyone who wants”—a public statement of support for intermarriage and gay marriage.

At the same time, Bennett claimed that he is still right-wing and compared the elections in Israel to the elections in Hungary: “We must learn from the Hungarian model of a right-wing but also state-oriented public,” he said. “We must stand behind right-wing positions, and thus we can replace the government.”

The Shas party responded sharply: “Anyone willing to sell the state’s Jewish identity—the holy Shabbos and marriage k’das Moshe and Yisrael—for political gain—will one day also sell Eretz Yisrael and Yehudah and Shomron.”

UTJ chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf said, “I would not be impressed by Bennett’s promises of civil marriage and Chillul Shabbos. He also promised not to sit with Mansour Abbas and signed a paper on a live broadcast that he would not allow Lapid to become prime minister. Even those on the left understand that he is trying to deceive people and steal votes.”

Democrats chairman Yair Golan rushed to praise Bennett’s statements, saying, “Bennett, welcome. Civil marriage in a liberal democratic country is a must. This is our Judaism, and we will demand it in the next government.”

“You’ve come a long way from the Bayit Yehudi until now. It’s nice to see that even in politics there are pleasant surprises and that even on the right they understand that only a strong liberal Israel will prevail.”

Golan expressed his hopes that Bennett will become a full-fledged liberal and also abandon his support for Yehuda and Shomron.

“I hope Bennett’s journey will continue one more step towards the necessary understanding that even political moves— parting with annexation fantasies— and courageous decisions are the right and only way to real security,” Golan wrote.

Golan did not explain why he still believes—after Israel was “rewarded” for giving up Gaza with the October 7 massacre— that giving up the fight for Yehudah and Shomron would lead to “real security.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)