Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says Israel’s democracy will prevail
search

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Click Here

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says Israel’s democracy will prevail

Bennett tells 350 guests at UJIA campaign dinner that "Israel is a nation that gets up and fights like a lion for its future"

Naftali Bennet. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90
Naftali Bennet. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90

Israel’s former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has likened protestors rallying against proposed judicial reform in Israel to freedom fighters.

“It’s wonderful to be here. I feel at home,” he told a 350-strong audience in a thirty minute wide-ranging speech at UJIA’s campaign launch dinner at Kensington Palace on Wednesday evening.

Taking to the stage as the event’s keynote speaker, Bennett said the Yom Kippur War had changed everything for his family; that before the 1973 conflict, his parents didn’t have a particularly strong connection to Israel. They returned to the US after his mother found living in a kibbutz in the young state too challenging.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett during a joint photo with the then new government ministers at the President’s residence in Jerusalem, Israel, 14 June 2021. The Knesset members on 13 June 2021 voted for the eight-party alliance led by Bennett from the far-right Jamina and Jair Lapid from the Future Party, the Knesset vote ends the historic 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo by: JINIPIX

But at the onset of the war, “my Dad got on the first plane he could find and fought,” he said. On then returning to Israel, his parents “felt different. They felt Israeli. Because they’d fought in a war. It changed everything. We stayed in Israel because of the Yom Kippur War.”

Whilst minister of economy and minister of education, Bennett said he “made it my business to be minister of Diaspora affairs which was not considered prestigious. But I did it because I think that it’s one of the top three missions of any Prime Minister and the State of Israel.

“We need a strong Jewish Diaspora to strengthen Israel, it’s true. It makes a huge difference. That’s what we are about. Jews take care of Jews. If a Jew in Morocco is hurt, I feel pain.”

Bennett said the Diaspora should be worried about the ongoing political situation in Israel. “It’s a very complicated situation. This thing is incredibly solvable. If two sides come in with good will, it’s four hours. It’s easy.”

He spoke of the undercurrent of division in society, being “fermented and heated up for political reasons”, that he is “a bit angry about it. I try not to be but it angers me but it’s being artificially inflated.”

A person stands in front of an Israeli police water cannon being used to disperse demonstrators blocking a road during a protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul the judicial system, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Calling Israel “an amazing miracle”, Israel’s 13th Prime Minister said that seventy five years on from the establishment of the state of Israel, reinventing social disparities between Ashkenazi and Sephardi for political use is “horrible and wrong.”

He added: “Everyone is whining about the problem but I want to talk about the solution: reverting back to a government like my government.”

“Am Y’Israel (the People of Israel) is learning the hard way that extremes are not good. Sometimes you have to go through it in order to understand. I believe mainstream Israel does not like what is going on and what we need is to revert. And that’s why the government we ran is a model of what we can do.”

Whilst Bennett said he couldn’t anticipate “what will happen tomorrow politically” he was certain that the next government “has to be and will be a unity government with all the main players in Israel working together to fix the mess.  Because it is a mess. People are waking up.”

Concluding, Bennett said he’d always been Right wing in his opinions. “I still am. It’s not changed. I think moderacy and pragmatism is more important right now than pushing my personal ideology. I’m a radical moderate right now.”

Naftali Bennett and Leader of the Opposition Yair Lapid.

He added that his short-lived unity government “presented an image of what Israel can be and what Israel will be.”

As to the job of the wider Diaspora, Bennett said: “I want you to be proud of Israel. I know there’s a lot of consternation and confusion. But look at this: what we are seeing is hundreds of thousands, no millions of Israeli’s fighting for freedom, fighting for their country on both sides. Caring for their country. And Baruch Hashem, with all this year of craze, god bless no blood was spilled.

“When we talk about Israel as a light upon nations, this is a beautiful example of a nation that gets up and fights like a lion for its future, caring for its future and fighting together. Israel’s democracy will prevail.”

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

read more: