Naftali Bennett

Overview

Naftali Bennett is an Israeli politician and former software entrepreneur who served as prime minister of Israel from June 13, 2021, to July 1, 2022. His rise joined several strands of Israeli public life: military service in Sayeret Matkal, work in technology, leadership in Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria, and the direction of successive political parties. He served in the Knesset and held the economy, education, diaspora affairs and defense portfolios before becoming prime minister. His final step to that office came through a coalition with Yair Lapid, whose party and six others joined Bennett’s Yamina in a government spanning much of Israel’s political spectrum. ^{[1][3][6][13]}

Bennett’s path to the premiership was unusual in parliamentary terms. Yamina won seven seats in the 2021 election, giving it a pivotal position after neither of the larger political blocs had formed a government. On June 13, the 24th Knesset approved the Bennett–Lapid government by 60 votes to 59, with one abstention. Its eight parties included Ra’am, the first Israeli Arab party to join a governing coalition. Lapid served as foreign minister and alternate prime minister under an agreement for a later rotation. The coalition’s collapse brought that succession forward: Lapid became prime minister on July 1, 2022. ^{[6][12][14][17]}

Early life

Bennett was born in Haifa on March 25, 1972. His parents were American Jews who had immigrated from San Francisco shortly after the Six-Day War in 1967. He is the youngest of three sons. During a period when the family lived in Montreal, he attended a Chabad preschool; he later attended a religious high school and became a youth leader in Bnei Akiva. These experiences placed Jewish education and communal life at the center of his upbringing, subjects he would address as a cabinet minister. Bennett and his wife, Gilat, have four children. ^[1][13]

Bennett served in Sayeret Matkal before entering business and politics. He subsequently worked as a software entrepreneur. That business career preceded his work for Benjamin Netanyahu and distinguished him from politicians whose careers began in party organizations or elected office. His move from technology into public affairs led first to senior political staff work, then to leadership of the Yesha Council and, eventually, to a seat in the Knesset. ^[1]

Career

From 2006 to 2008, Bennett served as Netanyahu’s chief of staff. In 2010, he became director general of the Yesha Council, an organization representing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. In that role he worked against a freeze on Jewish community construction. The post gave him a national platform on questions of community development and government policy, while his earlier work for Netanyahu supplied experience at the center of Israeli party politics. He left Likud and joined Jewish Home in April 2012, then was elected leader of that party later that year. ^[1]

Jewish Home won 12 seats in the January 2013 election, becoming the Knesset’s fifth-largest party. In March, Bennett joined Lapid and Netanyahu in forming a coalition government. Bennett became minister of economy and trade and also assumed responsibility for diaspora affairs. His entry into government reflected both the electoral strength of Jewish Home and the need to assemble a parliamentary majority from parties with distinct priorities. As a minister, he combined economic responsibilities with an increasingly prominent public role in questions concerning Jewish communities in Israel and abroad. ^[1][4]

After the March 2015 election, Bennett became minister of education. He also served on Israel’s Security Cabinet, which handles major defense and foreign policy decisions. As education minister, he pressed for cabinet members to receive stronger professional preparation before making national security decisions. The proposal concerned their access to intelligence, strategic assessments and operational alternatives. In October 2015, Bennett resigned his Knesset seat under a law allowing cabinet ministers to yield their seats while retaining a right to return. He returned to the legislature in December after Avi Wortzman vacated a seat. ^[4][11]

Bennett also used his ministerial position to address ties between Israel and Jewish communities abroad. At the 2018 AJC Global Forum in Jerusalem, where he appeared as minister of education and diaspora affairs, he warned that assimilation threatened the future of millions of Jews in the diaspora. He emphasized Jewish engagement even when disagreements existed between communities. The address formed part of his broader public work on Jewish identity, alongside his responsibilities for Israel’s education system. ^[3][4]

In December 2018, Bennett and other Jewish Home lawmakers formed the breakaway New Right party. New Right narrowly missed the electoral threshold in the first Knesset election of 2019, leaving Bennett without a seat in the 21st Knesset. Netanyahu dismissed him from the government in June. Bennett returned to the Knesset after the September 2019 election, when his party alliance won seven seats. Netanyahu appointed him minister of defense in November 2019, placing a politician who had long argued for a strong Israeli security posture in charge of the defense portfolio. ^[1][15]

Bennett led a Yamina joint slate with New Right and National Union in the March 2020 election; the slate won six seats. Continuing elections left Israel without a settled parliamentary majority. In the 2021 campaign, Yamina pledged to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar after taking power. Once Bennett entered a broad coalition, Foreign Minister Lapid sought more time for the government to consider the issue, illustrating the compromises required among partners with different positions. ^[9][15]

Following the 2021 election, Bennett rejected a proposed arrangement under which he and Netanyahu would each serve two years as prime minister. After Lapid received the mandate to form a government, Bennett supported joining a broad coalition. Yamina’s seven seats proved decisive: Bennett agreed to govern with Lapid and six other parties, including Ra’am. The coalition brought together parties from the right, center and left as well as an Israeli Arab party. Bennett became prime minister when the government was sworn in on June 13, 2021; Lapid became foreign minister and alternate prime minister. Their planned rotation provided a way for leaders of different parties to share the premiership. ^{[1][6][14][17]}

Bennett’s government pursued regional cooperation alongside domestic policy. He spoke with Mohammed bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi on July 23, 2021, as Israel and the United Arab Emirates expanded their relationship following the Abraham Accords. The government advanced environmental and climate cooperation with the UAE and other partners, including work concerning water, energy and food security. Israel, India, the UAE and the United States also formed the I2U2 Group at an October 2021 foreign ministers’ meeting. That arrangement added another channel for cooperation among the four countries. ^[5][7][18]

Relations with Egypt formed another part of Bennett’s regional diplomacy. He met President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Sharm el-Sheikh in September 2021. EgyptAir resumed Cairo–Tel Aviv flights on October 3, two weeks after that meeting. In March 2022, Bennett returned to Sharm el-Sheikh for a meeting with el-Sisi and Mohammed bin Zayed, then crown prince of Abu Dhabi. The three-way meeting preceded the Negev Summit, which brought together the foreign ministers of Israel, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, the UAE and the United States. ^[10]

The Negev Forum began under Bennett’s government in March 2022 as a framework for regional integration and cooperation. Its participants examined shared security and economic interests, while one working group focused on food security. Bennett also visited Bahrain in February 2022 and met King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. He met King Abdullah II of Jordan without media coverage. Together, these contacts showed the range of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy undertaken during his premiership. ^[7][10]

Ideology and statements

Bennett’s political career has emphasized Jewish communal life, Israeli security and development of communities in Judea and Samaria. His leadership of the Yesha Council placed him in opposition to a construction freeze, while his later roles required him to work within coalitions that contained sharply different views. His 2018 warning about diaspora assimilation reflected another enduring concern: preserving Jewish identity and ties among Jews in Israel and abroad. His 2021 decision to form an eight-party government showed a willingness to negotiate a governing arrangement beyond his party’s usual political partners. ^[1][3][6]

As prime minister, Bennett opposed the proposed nuclear agreement being negotiated in Vienna with the Iranian regime. He argued that temporary limits on enrichment would delay the problem while weakening efforts to confront the regime’s nuclear program and leaving the region to face a heavier future cost. He maintained that Israel was not bound by any agreement to which it was not a party and would retain freedom of action to defend itself. His position connected the nuclear issue to the Iranian regime’s wider regional activity and to Israel’s own security planning. ^[8][16]

In December 2021, Bennett announced a development plan of approximately NIS 1 billion for the Golan Heights, part of the State of Israel and of historic Bashan, most of which lies in Syria and is today occupied by Syria. The plan aimed to double the population of the Heights, strengthen Katzrin and establish two new communities, Asif and Matar. Bennett presented the investment as a long-delayed step to expand housing, employment and public services. The proposal linked his longstanding support for Jewish community development with a major decision taken during his premiership. ^[19]

Role in attacks or conflicts

Bennett’s principal recorded role in security affairs was as a decision-maker rather than as a commander of an attack. His service in Sayeret Matkal preceded his political career; later, he participated in national security decisions as a Security Cabinet member, defense minister and prime minister. As education minister, he argued that cabinet members needed stronger professional preparation to assess intelligence and strategic options. The proposal reflected the consequences of decisions made by civilian leaders responsible for Israel’s defense and foreign policy. ^[1][4][11]

The nuclear program of the Iranian regime was central to Bennett’s security diplomacy. He met U.S. President Joe Biden in August 2021 to discuss preventing the regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Bennett subsequently announced that Israel and the United States had established a joint national security team to work toward that objective. He opposed the Vienna negotiations on the grounds that the contemplated agreement would impose temporary limits without adequately addressing the longer-term threat. His government paired that diplomatic opposition with close security coordination with the United States. ^[8][16]

At a January 2022 Knesset briefing, Bennett described the Iranian regime and its regional proxies as Israel’s leading security challenge. He said Israel would preserve freedom of action regardless of the outcome of the Vienna talks. He also identified continued calm in Gaza, prevention of a renewed military buildup there, the return of Israelis held there, and stability in Judea and Samaria as security goals. These statements set out the priorities he brought to the premiership after serving as defense minister. ^[16]

Death or current status

Bennett is a former prime minister. His eight-party coalition lost the parliamentary stability needed to continue governing in 2022, accelerating its planned rotation with Lapid. Lapid succeeded him on July 1, 2022, becoming Israel’s 14th prime minister. Bennett’s term had lasted a little more than a year, from the June 2021 confidence vote to the change in leadership in July 2022. ^[13][17]

Legacy

Bennett’s premiership marked the formation of Israel’s first governing coalition to include an Israeli Arab party. Its narrow 60–59 approval demonstrated both the reach and the fragility of an eight-party agreement assembled from across the political spectrum. His seven-seat Yamina party supplied the votes needed to end a prolonged failure to form a government, while Lapid’s role as alternate prime minister provided a planned succession. The coalition’s early collapse brought that succession forward without erasing the significance of its formation. ^[6][14][17]

His government also left a record of regional initiatives. The Sharm el-Sheikh meeting, the launch of the Negev Forum, cooperation with the UAE, contacts with Bahrain, and the formation of I2U2 extended channels opened by earlier agreements into new diplomatic and practical work. At the same time, Bennett maintained a firm stance against the Iranian regime’s nuclear program and worked with the United States on security coordination. Those policies, together with his earlier service in education and defense, define a career that moved from technology and party leadership to Israel’s highest executive office. ^{[7][8][10][18]}