"Adams is a fool, the USA is in a process of Islamization"

After being placed by Benjamin Netanyahu in the previous elections, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli managed to break into the top ten of the Likud (16th on the list after reserved spots) and bypass ministers and Knesset members who were in the ruling party longer than him, as well as Idit Silman, who was reserved four years ago along with him.

Minister Chikli does not like the comparison to his current and former party colleague. In an interview on the "Game of Chairs" podcast held 24 hours after the voting results, he says: "First of all, this is a significant achievement after a lot of hard work, especially in the last six months. Secondly, I never liked the comparison, for a technical reason that is also substantive. There is a difference between being Bennett's coalition chairman for over a year, and saying 'no' to Bennett even before his government was formed and voting against it."

Without naming her, Minister Chikli criticizes Silman's "convenience move." "There were several of us on the list, some went home and some took the most senior positions available, and when the ship is already sinking, remembering to resign is a completely different event."

Although he himself was a reservation or placement of Naftali Bennett at first and then of Netanyahu, Chikli shares praise for the Likud primary system: "I think primaries are excellent, but it would be more correct to move to a digital platform, which would greatly strengthen the power of free voters and weaken the organized commanders."

Not demanding a position

Chikli estimates that some of the reservations Netanyahu kept on the list were intended to save members of right-wing parties who would have difficulty passing the electoral threshold and thus save mandates for the bloc. "I assume Netanyahu will want to create connections, mergers, bring in new blood, as we also saw with the addition of Oren Dobronsky. Regarding the internal political events, the give and take - I am less enthusiastic about these things, but these are the rules of the format."

Regarding his future position, he stated: "I learned from Bennett, by way of negation, not to focus on a position, but on a direction. I will be where it is possible to promote a Zionist agenda, that is what is important to me. I am very worried about what is happening in the Galilee, and then it is possible through housing to do big actions. It is possible to do internal security. I have no position that I come and say 'wow', I must be this minister or that minister."

"Tectonic event"

Regarding the lack of governance in the Negev, Chikli denies the accusation: "That is not true. There is a lot to do in the field of the Negev. I think the entry of the Shin Bet only in the last two months into this campaign is a tectonic event. It should have happened sooner. And that is also because we have a Shin Bet head who is a national person in his views and not a person who thinks that the existential problem of the State of Israel is that Ben Gvir goes up to the Temple Mount like the previous Shin Bet head who was the worst Shin Bet head in history not only of the State of Israel. Since the sin of the spies, we have not had intelligence heads as failing as Ronen Bar."

Chikli returns to the actions the government managed to do regarding illegal construction in the Negev: "We are changing the face of reality in the Negev. We evacuated 137 clusters of hundreds of illegal buildings. The State of Israel until this government did not evacuate one cluster in the last fifteen years."

Islamization of the USA

Regarding the fight against antisemitism, Chikli came out sharply against New York Mayor Adams: "Adams is not interesting. It is about a fool. What is interesting is the phenomenon of the Adamses, as it was in Europe, that actually Islamist people are taking very significant positions of influence. The USA is under an accelerated process of Islamization, we see it in the political system. Radical Islam is our enemy number one and now also America's, therefore it is necessary to concentrate the struggle on this issue, to cooperate with the American and European conservative wing against radical Islam and against the Muslim Brotherhood. This should be the strategy."

"Goldknopf is not suitable to be a minister"

Regarding his confrontations with Goldknopf, Chikli stated: "I do not look at the Haredim as a monolith. With Goldknopf it was very difficult. I had publicized confrontations with him. I told him in a government meeting that he is not suitable to be a minister, and that he is a malfunction as a housing minister. He promoted an agenda that is very sectoral."

On a possible partnership with Eizenkot, Chikli said: "I do not rule him out, if he is willing to go for a judicial reform. In my opinion, he is not willing. I want to promote the agenda of the national camp. I want a settlement revolution in Judea and Samaria. I want the strengthening of the settlement in the Negev and the Galilee. I want a judicial reform. I prefer not to need sectoral parties or left-wing parties."