Naftali Bennett gives a press conference at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, April 21, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Bennett, 49, would break some boundaries. He would be Israel\u2019s first Orthodox Jewish prime minister and the country\u2019s first leader born of American parents. He would also be the first prime minister to have become rich in the tech sector. <\/p>\n
Bennett is slated to become prime minister under an emerging, fragile coalition deal that has seen Israeli parties team up across the political spectrum with the sole aim of ousting Netanyahu, who has been prime minister for 12 years. Under his deal with centrist Yair Lapid, Bennett would serve as PM for two-plus years, then Lapid would rotate into the role.<\/p>\n
Of course, the whole thing could fall apart: The parties, which span from left to right, Jewish to Arab, have no shared vision for the 73-year-old nation. If the coalition deal isn\u2019t sealed by a deadline of midnight on Wednesday, Israel\u2019s deeply divided politicians will return to the drawing board. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you need to know about the likely next prime minister, from his past in the United States to his vision for West Bank annexation in the future, before he (potentially) takes office next week. <\/p>\n
American-Israeli background<\/strong><\/p>\nBennett was born in Haifa to American immigrants from San Francisco, and lived in the United States and Canada for a time as a child before the family returned permanently to Israel. Like Netanyahu, he speaks fluent English with barely any accent.<\/p>\n
Bennett recalls that he became Orthodox as a child, after attending a Chabad preschool while his family lived for a time in Montreal. As an adult, he is Modern Orthodox and wears a kippah \u2014 if he becomes prime minister, he would be the first to do so regularly. He lives in Raanana, a suburb of Tel Aviv. <\/p>\n
After serving in the Israel Defense Forces, Bennett earned a law degree and entered the tech industry, moving to New York City. He co-founded a successful fraud detection software company, Cyota, and sold it in 2005 for $145 million.<\/p>\n
Back in Israel, after leaving the tech world, Bennett got involved in right-wing politics. He quickly rose to become Netanyahu\u2019s chief of staff, a position he held from 2006-2008, when Netanyahu was the leader of the opposition in Israel\u2019s parliament, the Knesset. He left the role \u2014 reportedly in a spat with Netanyahu \u2014 and became the director of the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization representing Israeli settlements. <\/p>\n
In 2012, he won the primaries of Jewish Home, a right-wing, religious Zionist party. In Knesset elections the following year, Jewish Home quadrupled the size of its delegation, winning 12 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, and Bennett became Israel\u2019s economy minister in a government led by Netanyahu. <\/p>\n
Since then, Bennett has served in various cabinet positions under Netanyahu alongside his longtime political partner, Ayelet Shaked \u2014 as Diaspora affairs minister, education minister and defense minister. He later split from Jewish Home and now heads a right-wing party called Yamina, which holds seven Knesset seats.
Palestinian statehood and West Bank annexation<\/strong><\/p>\nBennett is an unabashedly hawkish religious Zionist who has long opposed Palestinian statehood, citing what he deems Israel\u2019s security concerns. Early in his political career, he vowed to do \u201ceverything in my power\u201d to make sure Palestinians can\u2019t establish an independent state. <\/p>\n
If he had his way, Bennett would also immediately annex much of the West Bank to Israel. Netanyahu also flirted with West Bank annexation, but demurred from the idea due to opposition from a wary Trump administration. <\/p>\n
Because his potential coalition includes left-wing parties, Bennett won\u2019t be able to annex any of the West Bank under the incoming government. <\/p>\n
Economics<\/strong><\/p>\nOn the economic front, Bennett advocates for free-market reforms, particularly in Israel\u2019s expensive housing market: He is against regulation, taxes and other restrictions on business. He is a proponent of widening Israel\u2019s network of trade partners around the world, including in emerging markets and in smaller countries with newer relationships with Israel.<\/p>\n
Controversial comments<\/strong><\/p>\nThe outspoken politician has been criticized for his inflammatory rhetoric about Arabs and Palestinians. In 2013, Bennett called for killing Arab terrorists who have killed Jews, instead of imprisoning them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have killed lots of Arabs in my life \u2013 and there is no problem with that,\u201d he said at the time.
He has urged Netanyahu to attack Hamas more aggressively in Gaza as well. In 2019, he said Netanyahu had \u201cfailed against Hamas in Gaza\u201d for a decade and criticized Israel\u2019s policy of \u201ccontainment.\u201d
\u201cIn the next years we need to put aside politics and issues like annexation or a Palestinian state, and focus on gaining control over the coronavirus pandemic, healing the economy and mending internal rifts,\u201d he said in November.<\/p>\n
Other policy<\/strong><\/p>\nAs an observant Orthodox Jew, Bennett is against same-sex marriage. However, he is slightly more liberal on the issue than some of his Orthodox peers in politics, saying that he would allow for tax breaks for same-sex couples.<\/p>\n
As education minister, Bennett was criticized for attempting to insert religious content into Israel\u2019s secular public school curriculum. <\/p>\n
Bennett also voted for a controversial law that defined Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, which critics called damaging to Israel\u2019s multiethnic democracy. Following the law\u2019s passage, however, Bennett acknowledged that the law hurt non-Jewish Israelis who serve in the Israeli military, such as Druze Israelis. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt has become clear that the manner in which the Nation-State Law was enacted is very damaging \u2013 especially to them and to anyone who has tied his fate to the Jewish state,\u201d Bennett said in 2018 after meeting with Israeli Druze leaders. \u201cThis, of course, was not the intention of the Israeli government. These are our brothers who stand shoulder to shoulder with us on the battlefield and made a covenant with us \u2013 a covenant of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
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