Naftali Bennett Riding a Wave

Even if Trump triumphs, Netanyahu’s trial for bribery and breach of trust will soon take center stage. Bibi’s approval ratings have cratered from 70% earlier this year to a miserly 30% now that Israelis are mired in a second coronavirus lockdown that put a damper on almost everyone’s holiday season.

The unruly Netanyahu-Gantz government faces a December 20 deadline to pass a budget. Should they fail, the Knesset will be automatically disbanded and new elections scheduled for March 2021.

Recent polls show that Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party would be the greatest beneficiary of new elections and would become the Knesset’s second-largest party. Media outlets from the left and right have been scrutinizing Bennett’s odds of becoming prime minister in the next year or two.

Bennett’s popularity is being propelled by his short stint as defense minister during the first coronavirus lockdown, when he inspired Israelis with his pragmatic, can-do attitude. That posed a sharp contrast to the current government’s reign of confusion, with lists of restrictions whose inconsistencies are not only maddening but flouted publicly by a growing list of elite government and security officials who’ve decided they are above the laws they make.