Few Americans have heard of Naftali Bennett. But the 40-year old former software entrepreneur and his right-wing political party, The Jewish Home (Habayit Hayehudi), is taking the Israeli political scene by storm.
Bennett’s party currently has three seats in the Knesset (parliament). But his support is surging. Some recent polls suggest Bennett and his team could end up with 12 or 13 seats after the January 22nd elections. Some polls, however, suggest Bennett’s team could win as many as 15 to 18 seats, emerging as Israel’s third — or possibly second — largest party.Bennett is married to a secular Jewish woman. He’s the father of four young children, all under the age of eight. Religious. Zionist. Served in one of Israel’s most elite army combat units, Sayeret Matkal. Went into business. Created a software company that he sold for millions. Served from 2006 to 2008 as Netanyahu’s chief of staff before breaking off and charting his own political path, to the right of his mentor. Served as the director of the Yesha Council, the governing body of the Jewish settler movement on the West Bank, from 2010 to 2012. Says Netanyahu is too willing to compromise with the Palestinians, too willing to create a Palestinian state, which Bennett vigorously opposes. “I will do everything in my power to make sure they never get a state,” he says of the Palestinians. Last year,Bennett – and his top deputy, Ayalet Shaked, 36 (described as “the new secular face of religious Zionism” by the Times of Israel) — unveiled a plan to unilaterally annex much of Judea and Samaria (aka, the West Bank), make it officially part of the State of Israel, and give the Palestinians autonomy in their daily affairs.
The Western media is beginning to pay attention. The New York Times ran a profile of Bennett in December headlined, “Dynamic Former Netanyahu Aide Shifts Israeli Campaign Rightward.” Last week, the UK Guardian ran an in-depth interview with him.
A lengthy profile in The New Yorker this month is worth reading. Manhattan liberal elites — along with Tel Aviv liberal elites — are stunned by Bennett’s rise. Author David Remnick argues that the Israeli electorate is moving sharply to the right because they are exhausted by the conflict with the Arabs; disillusioned with the peace process; increasingly convinced the Palestinians will never make peace; anxious about the instability and anti-Israeli hostility in surrounding nations like Syria, Egypt and Jordan; worried about the Iranian nuclear threat; and convinced that the Israeli left has no fresh ideas and no dynamic leaders. Is he right? I’m not a big fan of left-wing publications like The New Yorker, and I certainly don’t typically see eye to eye with Remnick, but I found it interesting to view Israel through their eyes.
Why is this story significant? See below:
According to the report, the U.S. is particularly concerned over the growing strength of the Habayit Hayehudi (The Jewish Home) in the polls and over the fact that there is hardly talk about negotiations with the Palestinian Authority as part of the election campaign.
The U.S. is concerned, according toChannel 10, that Bennett's strengthening will cause Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in turn, to strengthen the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
The U.S. is concerned, according toChannel 10, that Bennett's strengthening will cause Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in turn, to strengthen the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
As for the American concern over Bennett, Netanyahu is reportedly planning to keep Bennett out of his coalition in favor of parties that would likely be more favored by Obama, such as Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid and Tzipi Livni's Hatnua.
A senior Likud official told Arutz Sheva on Tuesday that Netanyahu has indicated in private conversations he would prefer to form a coalition Lapid and Livni and that he "fears a strong Bennett", because his party will make it difficult for him to make diplomatic moves.
A senior Likud official told Arutz Sheva on Tuesday that Netanyahu has indicated in private conversations he would prefer to form a coalition Lapid and Livni and that he "fears a strong Bennett", because his party will make it difficult for him to make diplomatic moves.
In other words, the U.S. is concerned that the presence of Bennett could push Israel towards policies which strengthen Israel (rather than weaken) and may push back against U.S. influence in Israel's decisions. This will be an interesting development to follow.
In today’s day and age where double standards reign supreme, Israel perpetually finds itself on the receiving end of criticism and condemnation above and beyond what any other world democracy (and, if we look to the UN’s member-states, a good portion of the world’s dictatorships) has ever had to endure. Indeed, the Jewish State is on the defensive, forever being expected to prove herself and explain why she has the right to exist. The frightening part is that the provocateurs from which Israel defends itself are not only Islamists bent on its destruction, but also Westerners whose worldview is mired in moral relativism, guided by propaganda, and crippled by the misguided notion of political correctness.
Take, for instance, the Muslim Brotherhood. From the nascent stage of the Arab Spring the group was characterized by many, including National Intelligence Director James Clapper, as a largely moderate, “secular” organization. Of course the term secular is laughable considering the Islamist group’s very moniker bears the word “Muslim.” It is doubly so considering the it is also the grandfather of all jihadist groups including but not limited to al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah.
But alas, the Brotherhood, which allegedly sought to usher in a new era of democracy and tolerance in the Middle East, succeeded in staking its claim across much of the region: Egypt elected Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammad Morsi to be the country’s president; Muammar Gadhafi was ousted in Libya only to be replaced by Brotherhood progeny, al Qaeda; and Brotherhood proxies are circling Assad’s Syria and King Abdullah’s Jordan like a vulture. This is all bad news for the West and worse news for Israel.
It is no mystery that since his ascension, Morsi has already put an unsettling frost over what was once a cool peace between Israel and Egypt. It is no mystery that his spiritual adviser, imam Yousef al Qaradawi is a rabid anti-Semite, and it is no mystery that Morsi is rumored to be soon coming to the White House for a meeting with the upper echelons of American government.
This is the same Morsi who in 2010 referred to Jews as “bloodsuckers” and “descendants of apes and pigs” and encouraged his fellow Arab nationalists at home to “nurse” their progeny on Jew-hatred as a means to furthering the destruction of the Jewish State.
“We must never forget, brothers, to nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred for them: for Zionists, for Jews,” Morsi declared in a speech that is now making its rounds across the Internet. “[Egyptian children] must feed on hatred; hatred must continue…the hatred must go on for Allah and as a form of worshiping him.”
Anyone who has followed the Muslim Brotherhood knows that Morsi’s vitriolic comments and world view are entirely genuine and completely in line with the Brotherhood manifesto, which is, not coincidentally, equally in sync with all Islamist ideology.
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