Israel's New Prime Minister: Bennett

6/13/2021

Israel Coalition Prime Ministers
First Two Years: Naftali Bennett & Second Two Years: Yair Lapid

6-13-21, Jewish Library -- Naftali Bennett [49] is a former software entrepreneur and the new Prime Minister of the Jewish state of Israel. He is Israel’s wealthiest politician.

Under the coalition agreement, Bennett will serve two years before passing the torch to Yair Lapid for the latter half of the four-year-term. Together they helped bring together a diverse government body, including a party representing Arab citizens for the first time in the nation's history.

Bennett is the first religious prime minister and first born of American parents who immigrated to Israel from San Francisco California USA soon after the Six Day War in 1967. He is the youngest of three sons. Like Netanyahu, he is fluent in English; is married to Gilat and they have four children.

He served in the Israel Defense Forces in the elite Special Forces commando unit Sayeret Matkal as well as the Special Forces unit Maglan. After his service he earned a law degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1999, he co-founded and co-owned the U.S. company Cyota focused on preventing various types of online fraud. The company was sold in 2005 for $145. Million. Bennett also served as CEO of Soluto, an Israeli cloud computing service, reportedly sold in 2013 for $100–130 million.

From 2006 to 2008, Bennett served as Benjamin Netanyahu's Chief of Staff. In 2010, he was chosen to be the Director General of the Yesha Council and worked against a settlement freeze. In December 2018, he was among the Jewish Home MKs to leave the party and form the breakaway New Right Party. Netanyahu pressured Bennett to form a union with the far right parties to increase the chance they would exceed the electoral threshold in the election for the 23rd Knesset in March 2020. However, Bennett ran a joint slate … The United Right as they were also called. In the 2021 election, Bennett’s Yamina Party won seven seats and he was viewed as the kingmaker; his natural allies are on the right.

Bennett does not support a ‘Palestinian State’ and supports the idea that Gaza should be ruled by Egypt. According to Gabe Friedman, “Bennett advocates for free-market reforms, particularly in Israel’s expensive housing market: He is against regulation, taxes and other restrictions on business. He is a proponent of widening Israel’s network of trade partners around the world, including in emerging markets and in smaller countries with newer relationships with Israel.”
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