JEWISH SENTINEL

8 JEWISH SENTINEL • JUNE 18 - 24, 2021 By HAVIV RETTIG GUR T his past Sunday evening, Is- rael found itself with a new prime minister: 49-year-old Naftali Bennett. Bennett is a study in contrasts. Born to American immigrant par- ents, he doesn’t consider himself part of Israel’s English-speaking community; an ex-commando and West Bank annexationist, he lives in liberal-leaning suburban Ra’anana; a successful tech mil- lionaire, he has little expertise in computer science. His unlikely rise to power, too, is a tale of unexpected twists, turns years later, at the tender age of 27, he was living in Manhattan and founding his first technology com- pany, Cyota, which sold six years later for $145 million. A self-made multimillionaire by 33, Bennett’s pivot toward politics came in the wake of the 2006 Leb- anon War. He served as a reservist in Maglan in that war, participat- ing in operations behind enemy lines to destroy Hezbollah cells and rocket launchers. As he would later tell it, the high command’s confused strategy and the politi- cal echelon’s strategic indecision in that war, as seen from the per- spective of a soldier on the ground, kindled in him a burning desire for a national leadership role. Like Avigdor Liberman before him, he entered politics in late 2006 as an aide to then-MK Ben- jamin Netanyahu, who was head of the opposition during the Olmert government. And like Liberman, Bennett ran Netanyahu’s prima- ry race to lead Likud (Liberman in 1995, Bennett in 2007), would go on to serve as Netanyahu’s top political aide, and then, in 2008 — again, just like Liberman — would have a falling out with Netanyahu and find himself out of a job. But Bennett found his footing quickly. Two years later, in 2010, he and Netanyahu were already on opposite sides of a political fight. In January 2010, Bennett was ap- pointed director-general of the umbrella advocacy group of West Bank settlements, the Yesha Coun- cil, while Netanyahu was ordering a sweeping freeze on construction in settlements at the behest of the Obama administration. While he led the Yesha Council, and contradictions. Bennett was born in Haifa, in March 1972, the youngest of three children to American immi- grant parents Jim and Myrna, who moved to Israel from San Francis- co in 1967 in the wake of the Six Day War. Besides two short family stints in San Francisco and Mon- treal in his youth, he spent much of his childhood in the northern port city. Ambitious from the start, he tried out for the army’s most prestigious commando unit, Say- eret Matkal. He made it past the grueling trials and served in the elite force and then in the Maglan reconnaissance unit. He left full-time military ser- vice after six years, in 1996. Three Bennett also founded the My Isra- el activist movement together with Ayelet Shaked, who had served with him in Netanyahu’s office from 2006 to 2008. In November 2012, he and Shaked used the platform of the My Israel organization to mount a primary challenge inside the floun- dering religious-Zionist party Jewish Home. Bennett swept to victory with over two-thirds of the vote, and then swept the right-wing party itself to an astounding showing of 12 seats in the 2013 general election. As he stepped onto the national political stage in 2013, at the age of 41, many already took note of the frenetic speed of his rise: An elite but short six-year military career; a wildly successful but scarcely seven-year-long high-tech career; a political climb from Netanyahu aide to settlements advocate to religious-Zionism’s bal- lot-box champion that itself stretched across scarcely seven years — he did everything on full throttle and nothing, it seemed, for very long. I ndeed, just as he en- tered the Knesset in 2013, news came of the sale for over $100 mil- lion of Soluto, a com- pany he had helmed for the brief period between leaving Netanyahu’s side and entering into his Yesha Council role. That frenetic pace hasn’t let up. Bennett’s strong showing in 2013 spooked Netanyahu, who did not forget their falling out and be- gan to seek ways to crush the pop- ular upstart. During coalition talks in late January, Netanyahu turned to Labor party leader ShellyYachi- movich in a bid to avoid inviting Bennett into his coalition. Bennett, in turn, formed a union with another neophyte upstart — popular talk show host Yair Lapid, who had established his fledgling YeshAtid party the year before and, as much to his own surprise as to everyone else’s, won a whopping Naftali Bennett, Brazen Gambler And the new prime minister of Israel COVER STORY Israel’s newest leader is a brazen risk- taker and gambler with an unusual penchant for beating the house. Bennett (left) formed a union with another upstart — former popular talk show host Yair Lapid, who’d become a shrewd politician – and they now rule Israel. Bennett: A driven soldier, a self-made tech millionaire, a political activist turned political leader, an ambitious, ckle and astoundingly con dent man. continued on page 31