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Who is Naftali Bennett, Israel’s new PM

Bennett would be PM for two years before handing over the torch to Yair Lapid

naftali-bennett-israel-reuters File photo of Naftali Bennett | Reuters

Israel’s Knesset, on Sunday, voted in favour of the formation of a coalition government put together by Naftali Bennett, head of Yamina Party and Yair Lapid, leader of Yesh Atid. Bennett, being sworn in as the new prime minister, ends the 12-year streak of Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime. 

Former defence minister Bennett would be prime minister for two years before handing over the torch to Yair Lapid. This coalition is an unusual one as it is the first time, that an Arab party, Ra’am is supporting a coalition government in Israel.

Former Education Minister Bennett had served as Netanyahu’s Chief of Staff between 2006-08. He is a former commando, having served with the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). During the 1996 operation against Lebanon, "Grapes of Wrath", he was in charge of 67 Magalan soldiers, in what was later called the Qana massacre, in which, 106 civilians, who had taken refuge in a UN building were killed by Israeli artillery.

Calling for an airstrike, Bennett was accused of panicking under pressure when his unit came under mortar fire and called for artillery support. Bennett resolutely denied these accusations said he would not apologize for his actions.

Bennett, who grew up in Haifa, is the son of American-born Israelis—Jim and Myrna Bennett. Bennett started in the tech sector, where he made millions after selling an anti-fraud software company, Cyota, founded by him in 1999 to US-based RSA security for $145 million in 2005. 

Bennett entered politics in 2012, joined a pro-settler Jewish House party and served as defence minister, and later held educational and economic portfolios in multiple Netanyahu governments. He founded the ground-breaking New Right party in 2018, later merging it with the Jewish House and National Unity-Tkuma to form the United Right party, later renamed Yamina.

As a supporter of Jewish settlements in occupied Palestine, he opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state for security reasons, calling it "suicide" for Israel. However, if a "government of change" plan in alliance with left and centre parties, and possibly even Arab parties, works, it cannot push an annexation agenda. Bennett in 2013, had said,  Palestinian “Palestinian «terrorists should be killed, not released.” Bennett has also negated occupancy of the West Bank by saying that, “there was never a Palestinian state here.” 

The bitter experience of Israel’s 2006 war against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah drove him to politics, Bennett said. When Bennett was in ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu’s cabinet, he was mentored by the Prime Minister. 

Bennett, who supports settlement expansion and is opposed to a Palestinian state, must move precariously, as, if even one of the parties in the eight-party coalition exits, the coalition could collapse. Bennett, therefore, is likely to follow in Netanyahu’s footsteps of managing the decades-old conflict without trying to end it. 

Bennett’s greatest challenge would be to unite an Israeli society, whose differences opened up during Netanyahu’s regime. 

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