Just over a year ago, Naftali Bennett became the Prime Minister of Israel through deceitfulness, lies, and in complete disregard to the conservative political platform that he promised just prior to Election Day. Naftali Bennett’s arrogance has had no boundaries and treats the Israeli public as if we are suckers, unable to understand our basic right to elect the candidate who represents the electoral will of the majority. The level of cynicism and condescension towards the Israeli public has reached levels that we in Israel have never encountered, leaving us simply stunned and feeling a sense of deep betrayal.
Naftali Bennett has in recent days, as his ruling coalition has reached its final days and is on the verge of losing its parliamentary majority, has doubled down and spread his poisonous and false accusations against the opposition and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett expects that we ignore our gut instincts and ignore his dishonesty towards the voting public and ignore the fact that he is a sitting duck Prime Minister with negligible electoral support (under 5 % of the public). Bennett has welcomed into his ruling coalition anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist parties including extreme left wing politicians and Israeli-Arab parties that are front organizations for the Muslim Brotherhood. It is worthy to note that the Muslim Brotherhood has been banned from any and all politic activity in most Arab countries including Egypt and Jordan, but not in the Bennett government. The left wing parties alongside the Israeli-Arab parties have been vocal supporters of convicted Palestinian terrorists and their organizations who have murdered over the years thousands of Israeli’s, Jews as well as non-Jews. The Bennett governing coalition has empowered and encouraged Palestinian terror and the majority of the public is clearly putting the blame on Bennett and his coalition partners.
To truly comprehend the level of distrust and disgust that the public harbors against Naftali Bennett, two examples stand out. Last month, during the wave of terror attacks during the Muslim Ramadan period, that took the lives of 15 Israeli citizens, Naftali Bennett refrained from visiting the bereaving families of the victims, in many cases he was refused entrance by the families themselves. Never in Israel’s history has a Prime Minister been so publicly rebuffed to make a Shiva call to families of terror victims. The second indication of the level of hatred and disgust from Naftali Bennett has been his inability to visit markets and other public appearances due to the expected outcry against his presence, as if he is beyond the pale, the very opposite of Israel’s political history in which politicians have always been close to the public and enjoyed “rubbing elbows” with them.
Understanding what motivated Naftali Bennett to abandon his pre-election promises has been articulately portrayed by MK Bezalel Smotrich, chairman of the Religious Zionism party; he pointed out that Bennett had joined terror supporters in order to be prime minister - at any cost. "Bennett, with his own hands, torpedoed a right-wing government and in a process planned ahead of time, even before the elections, ripped apart the nationalist camp and joined the extreme Left and anti-Zionist terror supporters in order to become prime minister at any cost. Bennett deceived, tricked, and lied throughout, and he continues to do this in his letter which praises a government that excommunicates over half of the nation and presents it as a holy martyr, while he incites against the Right, slanders Religious Zionism, and calls on the Left to begin a civil war."
Naftali Bennett’s underlying motivation to betray the public could easily be clarified within the realm of psychoanalysis. Due to ethical considerations, we will have to suffice with examining his public persona through the prism of political historians. “The March of Folly” was published in 1984 by Barbara Tuchman, an American political historian. The book is about one of the most compelling paradoxes of history: the pursuit by political leaders of policies contrary to their own interests despite the availability of feasible alternatives. Tuchman applies the concept of folly to 'historical mistakes'. In Tuchman’s view the only way to account for such self-destructive policies pursued by political leaders despite forebodings that it was mistaken was to interpret these decisions as beyond rational explanation, or in other words “follies”.
From day one in office, Naftali Bennett has expressed swaggering confidence, never admitting doubt or mistakes. Due to his lackluster performance and failing leadership, he has been forced to abandon without exception his political ideals and election promises to keep his ruling coalition in power. This shortcut to power pursued by Naftali Bennett has brought Israel to the brink of disaster, everyday more and more of the public are sensing that we are sitting on a ticking time bomb waiting for it to explode.
Naftali Bennett has by refusing to move in to the official State residence of the Prime Minister in Jerusalem has empowered the Biden administration and the European Union to question Israel’s continued sovereignty over its capital, the united City of Jerusalem. There has been extortion of billions of shequels for the Arab sector with little if any true accountability of how the funding will be spent. Tens of thousands of illegally built homes by Bedouin Arabs on state land will be approved after-the-fact in complete disregard to the building and zoning regulations that are applied within Jewish communities.
Naftali Bennett has joined the notorious list of political leaders who have baffled historians. He has put Israel on the path of being transformed into a nation similar to the Kingdom of Troy; when faced with a critical historical crossroad, political decisions were made that brought on to Troy, the self-inflicted destruction of one of the most powerful Kingdoms of its time.
Naftali Bennett’s will be remembered not only as a blip in history, but as a brief and failing political anomaly. Bennett’s legacy will always be one of deceit, perjury, defamation, and violence. The enormous and widespread harm that Bennett has inflicted on all areas of society in Israel will resonate and be felt for years, and only when the existence of his government is ended once and for all can we in Israel begin the arduous effort to undue much of the damage inflicted on the Jewish nation and the State of Israel.