Haredi Diamond Mogul wants Shaked as Prime Minister

A haredi miner and a diamond magnate who supported the first elections of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in 1996, said the Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) Netanyahu, who turns 69 in October, hinted that he would run for a fifth term at the end of the current Knesset term in 2019, before retiring from politics . If Netanyahu is re-elected in 2019, and he fulfills another four-year term, he will turn 74 at the end of his fifth term.

The possibility that Netanyahu will retire in the next few years has sparked speculation about who would succeed the man who led the Likud, the Israeli right – and Israel – for much of the past quarter century.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who announced in March that he would not seek a third term, suggested Minister of Education Naftali Bennett (Jewish House) also spoke of his aspirations for the post of prime minister following Netanyahu's departure from politics

but the Australian Jewish mining magnate Joseph Gutnick, who helped finance Netanyahu's first campaign in 1996, believes that the minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked (Jewish House) is Netanyahu's natural political heir.

"I would really love to support her as the heiress [political] of Netanyahu," Gutnick told Maariv .

"When Bibi [Netanyahu] will retire, she will have to run the Likud."

Jewish House President Naftali Bennett, Gutnick, must withdraw and let Shaked run

"He must be in charge."

Gutnick, a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, explained the rationale behind his support for Shaked – a secular member of the primarily national-religious religion. "This is for the sake of Integrity of Israel's Land and the Jewish world, "said Gutnick, explaining that Bennett" has no chance of becoming Prime Minister, although he may become Minister of Foreign Affairs "