A Few Minutes with Naftali Bennett

But Bennett’s plans to challenge Binyamin Netanyahu for the country’s leadership were thrown into disarray by the emergence of Gideon Saar as a rival. Bennett and Saar have now spent months battling over the same pool of center-right voters.

In a candid conversation just two weeks before the polls open, Bennett outlines a new strategy. He’s no longer battling for the centrist “anyone but Bibi” camp, now dominated by Gideon Saar. Instead, he’s fighting a double battle: to win votes on the right, and to create a public perception that he’s Netanyahu’s successor for the leadership of the right.

But while he plots his takeover of the prime minister’s office, Bennett recognizes a bleak truth. A right-wing government made up of Bennett, Bezalel Smotrich, and the chareidim isn’t Netanyahu’s only option. The other option is to just entrench himself in Balfour Street and drag the country to fifth elections.

Less than a month before the elections, the polls uniformly show that Naftali Bennett will hold the balance of power. You’ve become the kingmaker, the one who will decide who becomes Israel’s next prime minister, Netanyahu or Lapid.

“I’m glad to be the kingmaker, but the king I’m going to crown is the Israeli public. For many years, young Israelis, especially, have felt that they’re constantly climbing the ladder and never making progress. They climb and climb, only to stay in the same place. This was true, first and foremost, with the economy — even before Covid, the situation was out of control. Many worked full-time jobs and couldn’t pay the bills. Many would never have a chance, no matter how hard they worked, to buy their own house. The Negev, over 12 years of Netanyahu’s rule, has been lost to the Bedouins, with widespread armed robberies and breaches of army bases. Housing prices have skyrocketed, and there’s a lot of hatred between different sectors. We need to take Israel out of the mud and charge forward.”