Naftali Bennett gets rewarded for the calculated rise to the top of Israeli politics

Naftali Bennett made his name as a right-wing Israeli ultranationalist demanding more Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank and tougher action against Palestinian militants.

He is now about to claim The highest office in Israel with the support of the marginal left and the only Islamist Arab party in the Jewish state.

As the 49-year-old prepares to ascend to work, he dethrones Benjamin netanyahu, his only mentor and five – time prime minister – his incendiary comments are being analyzed for clues as to what kind of leader he will be.

To those who have stood by his side and to friends who have known him for decades, the ability to inhabit different roles: right-wing flagbearer, technological billionaire and, suddenly, a voice that unites in a divided country. Bennett that the incendiary comments that have been headlines in his calculated rise to the top of Israeli politics.

“He has always had a highly regarded public figure. Not calculated, but carefully calibrated, “said one of the two longtime friends who asked for anonymity to speak freely about the likely next leader of the Jewish state.” They add very convenient contradictions, “said the second.” The politician Naftali is always evolving. “

This evolution will continue on Sunday, when there will be 61 members of Israel’s 120-seat parliament you are expected to vote Bennett became his prime minister and ended Netanyahu’s twelve years in office.

He would begin several firsts for the Jewish state: the first religious Jew to wear a kipa and observe on Saturday to lead the country; the first to share power with an Arab party, the Islamist Ra’am; and the prime minister who controls only six Knesset seats.

This would catapult a man who has lived in the shadow of Netanyahu (first as chief of staff, then as a right-wing anchor in successive coalitions) to his political executioner, sending Israel’s longest-serving prime minister to the banks of the opposition just when its corruption process meets. impulse.

Bennett, leader of the small Yamina party, would replace him at the head of an eight-leader coalition spanning from the left wing to the ultranationalist right. He would hold the first job for two years as part of a rotating prime minister with Yair Lapid, the opposition leader who rallied the coalition.

Keeping it together would force Bennett to evolve even further, said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Institute of Democracy, who has known him since his time at Sayeret Matkal, the elite unit of the Defense Force. Israeli.

Later, the Sayeret Matkal used to recruit from among the Ashkenazi Jews of Israel, descendants of the lay Europeans who founded the state. But Bennett came from a different group that identifies itself as the national religious camp, combining Orthodox Judaism with state-building. The camp, which generally believes in expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, has gained prominence in Israel since the late 1990s.

“Bennett was one of the first to mark the ambition of members of this national religious sector to join one of the top elite institutions that make up the country,” Plesner said.

There are a lot of little hanging fruits in the settlement company that can be plucked very quickly to soothe this base.

He continued: “The fact that he will be the prime minister of this sector is the continuation of this same line of thinking: the national religious field is now the main course, not just a supplement, and they are taking responsibilities.”

Born in Israel to American Jewish parents, his successful post-military business career culminated in the multimillion-dollar departure of a technology company. The military record that is key to his personality revolves around demanding the Israeli government release the armed forces to take tougher action against Palestinian militants like Hamas.

But his time in the army was overshadowed by the 1996 Qana massacre. Leading a unit in Lebanon during Operation Grapes of Wrath, he called an artillery strike near a UN refuge after of having been set on fire since Hezbollah. At least 100 civilians were killed.

Decades later, he was forced to deny leaked comments from a cabinet meeting that “had killed many Arabs, and there is no problem.”

For the international community, which has to deal with an Israeli prime minister who has already exposed his rejection of a Palestinian state, his short stint in 2010 as the leader of an umbrella group of West Bank settlers is equally worrying.

“There is a lot of hanging fruit in the settlement company that can be ripped off very quickly to appease this base,” said a European diplomat, who has met with Bennett to discuss the demolition of the Palestinian-built West Bank. and with the support of EU peoples. “It’s good television: send soldiers to tear down shops and houses and then change channels.”

But Oded Revivi, mayor of Ephrat’s settlements and foreign envoy of the group, recalls that Bennett’s stage was ineffective and ineffective.

“I can’t say that during this period there was a specific goal,” he said in an interview. And Bennett leading a coalition that included the left and an Arab party would lead to “a halt,” Revivi predicted.

“They will not be able to promote a two-state solution nor will they be able to evacuate any of the settlements,” he said.

Commitments forced by the nature of the coalition would also temper Bennett’s right-wing urgencies, analysts and friends of Bennett said.

After two years of political paralysis, approving a budget, agreeing on stimulus spending while maintaining public debt – which has risen above 70 percent of gross domestic product during the coronavirus crisis – is expected to be the first order of the day, they say. The coalition has already informally agreed to focus on the economy and recover from the pandemic.

“Just approving a budget, making competent appointments to the civil service, getting the government machinery to work again and passing legislation will automatically usher in a fresh start and a new environment,” Plesner said.

“He does not need to resolve the 100-year conflict with the Palestinians to be perceived as a competent and successful prime minister.”