Israeli hardliner eyes 'crucial' defense portfolio

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennet on Thursday said he hopes to secure the defense portfolio in the country’s next government, according to local media reports.

“I don’t intend to push [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu too hard, but if he’s going to retain the premiership, I plan to demand the defense portfolio,” Bennet, who leads Israel’s right-wing Jewish Home party, told Israeli public radio.

“It’s a crucial position,” Bennet said. “I will definitely demand it after the next election.”

The Jewish Home party represents orthodox Jews and supports unbridled Israeli settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In 2014, Jewish Home member Ayelet Shaked infamously called for executing the mothers of Palestinians killed while carrying out resistance attacks.

The party currently holds three major ministerial portfolios -- education, justice and agriculture -- in Netanyahu’s Likud-led coalition government.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu said the government should call early elections if it failed to resolve its ongoing dispute with Israel’s ultra-orthodox Jewish (Haredi) community over military conscription.