right?
"We will create a new national party" • Treating the epidemic?
"Criminal Negligence" • Peace Agreements?
"If you ask me - sovereignty or Bahrain, I prefer sovereignty" • The justice system?
"I will be a reformer" • Netanyahu's successor?
"He's not focused, I'll bring something else" • Special interview
"I'm not here because of power, money or honor, but because of my leadership failure."
Naftali Bennett
Photo:
Eric Sultan
In an atmosphere of disagreement in almost every area, it seems that a delicate consensus is maturing in Israel between right and left: Naftali Bennett, right-wing chairman, appears to be a possible prime minister after Netanyahu. In second place, after Ayelet Shaked, and found himself leading his party to the opposition in the current Knesset.
With the aura of victory over the first wave of the Corona as defense minister, and in the face of public disappointment at the government's failure to run the second wave, Bennett's shares as an ardent oppositionist rise, along with the polls.
In a long meeting with him he turns out to be pragmatic, thorough, knowledgeable and calm.
And yes, also cruel at times, Killer.
"In April 2019, Sunday, the new right does not pass the blocking percentage," I ask him in an interview in Tel Aviv this week, "September 2020 - right with 20 seats in the polls. Can you explain this resurrection?"
"I was not depressed when we did not pass the blocking percentage, and I am not in celebrations and dances when there are high polls," Bennett replies. "Somewhere the public says, put aside for a while the usual quarrels between the right and the left, take care already to get us out of the state of emergency, unite the people."
So it's temporary? Because even in the establishment of the new right you were around these numbers. Could it be a return wheel?
"The burden of proof is on me. I think there is an opportunity beyond the political, a national opportunity, after such a long time that either you are in the 'Only Bibi' camp, or you are in the 'Only not Bibi' camp, to form a new camp called 'For the State of Israel'. It".
You are also subscribed to the adventure of 2019, which actually led Israel to three election campaigns and ended the well-known right-wing government.
Bennett, this week. Highly tuned // Photo: Eric Sultan
"There are ideas that their time should come to maturity, and the time of the new party and the new movement has matured. Because what does she say? She says true oil is not characterized by hatred of the left, but by what it promotes, what it really promotes."
Wait, do I hear a new party? You conquered the NRP with the Jewish Home, you were the Minister of Education, you established the new right, the right, you became the Minister of Defense. These were niche parties.
"Unequivocally, the right opens.
It ceases to be a niche party, it appeals to the entire national public in the State of Israel - secular, ultra-Orthodox, religious.
It has a wing that will deal with the religious, but it has ceased to be a sectoral party.
You will see a very, very wide range of the Israeli public.
Yes, the right is changing its face. "
What character will she have? Is this Likud B? Blue and white C?
"I just think that Likud A. today is a lot of ministers who engage in shouting, who do not bring much respect. Neither this nor that. This is a national, Jewish, right-wing party."
No longer the home of religious Zionism.
"It will also be a home of religious Zionism."
Will your partner, Ayelet Shaked, receive your debut?
"We have a high mutual appreciation, we work together for 14 years. At the end of our drive it is ideological, and the ideal is to give to the State of Israel. I see here a list of good people, like Ayelet and like many others, who come to work."
But under your leadership.
"Unequivocal".
Bezalel Smutrich will be part of the party?
"He is a partner. He will continue. He was an excellent transport minister and underwent very serious maturation. But the diversity will be wide. We will create a movement that says it is time for a different leadership."
So this is actually the Naftali Bennett party?
"Look, the party is changing. Until recently it was sectoral and it is opening and changing its face. It is a dramatic event. There are advantages to primaries, and I say this as someone who ran three times and won. In the long run, a mechanism that gives power to the public, and on the other Takes care of balances, it's a good mechanism. "
You can pledge here that Ayelet Shaked is your number 2, or maybe Yifat Shasha-Biton, as it is.
"Yaakov, while the public is reading the interview, 9 million citizens are entering a three-week closure, in a very difficult economic situation. I think we are currently discussing details of what will happen in the election ..."
The polls do not stop there either. Our conversation right now is part of the outcome of what is happening in the closure.
"I'm not sure there are elections at the moment. I am pointing the direction - this is an all-Israeli, national, strong, professional party with excellence. And first and foremost a government that serves the citizens."
"We should have been a light to the Gentiles." Corona inspection at the drive-in complex // Photo: Ginny Agency
Can an alliance of people have a future, Meretz, vis-à-vis the Likud? Even as a blocking block?
"There will be no alliance of this kind, nor will I ever form a government on Arab votes, or on abstaining from Arabs."
No. The government on the votes of Jews, but in the alliance between Meretz, there is a future, Lieberman, in front of the Likud and the ultra-Orthodox.
"What needs to be done is instead of going in the direction of boycotts, starting to connect. And marking the goal. The goal is a triangle: take over the corona, rehabilitate the economy and unite the people."
Description of the last blue and white Likud government.
"Yeah, just they don't do it."
"Begin also took time"
Branding the NRP under the name "Jewish House" was Bennett's first step, along with the secular Shaked, to break through the sector's boundaries and attract voters from the secular right. Success remained limited, especially in the social periphery known as "Second Israel."
Do you think that next time you will be able to produce the essays among the essay that raised Menachem Begin and Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister?
"I do not see myself as representing any kind of sectoral group. If I get up in the morning as defense minister, I am the defense minister of the entire Israeli public. Jews and Arabs alike. And the education minister of the entire Israeli public - Sephardim, Ashkenazim, periphery, center. "B, did not know there was such a thing, Sephardim and Ashkenazim.
We were raised in some kind of color blindness, and I'm very happy that I grew up that way. "
But in five election campaigns, the public you talk about in color blindness is not a member of you; He may have seen you as an elitist party of religious Zionism. Which persona will change that?
"It's not a matter of persona."
"The current leadership is tired." Bennett with Netanyahu // Photo: Yonatan Zindel / Flash 90
In the Likud there is Miri Regev, there is Amir Ohana, there is Dudi Amsalem, there is a bunch of people who grew up behind, were not appointed by people. Made their war.
"I also built myself with my ten fingers, and if you ask me, a young man from Netivot - does he want to see a personal example of the characters you described or me, I think they definitely identify with me very much. I deny the ethnic look."
Is there no ethnicity in Israel? Avishai Ben Haim's "Second Israel" does not exist?
"Certainly there is, but we must strive to look ahead and build the future. Recognize the past, but do not dig into it. Do not dig into ethnicity. It is an old-fashioned discourse, and the truth is that when mother lights candles in Be'er Sheva, she and I are equally excited about the flag. Israel and from lighting candles and sanctifying and forgiving. "
And in the end it is called Mahal. Do you see the distance? Did you see in the election results - these publics did not come to you.
"Listen, Menachem Begin, too, lost 29 years in the election until he became prime minister."
Until he connected to the same audience. He lost by adhering to the two-bank ideology of Jordan. He won when asked this flag he added the social flag.
"And that's what I'm doing these days.
You are defined as religious lite - what exactly is it?
"The approach of Judaism that I am most connected to is Sephardic Judaism, in the sense that unlike Ashkenazi Judaism, which you were defined as either completely secular and educated, or ultra-Orthodox, in North African countries and in Eastern Jewry in general, there was no such definition. The rabbis knew how to open the door to everyone. Who do kiddush and then watch football, are Jews no less. I do not like the definition lite or not lite. I am not in favor of changing religion. I am not in favor of changing halakhah. I am in favor of moderate Judaism that does not judge, live and let live, and on the other hand, as a public leader, I see the great longing of parents for their children to have roots and tradition. "
Yair Lapid, from the first minute he entered politics, declared that he wanted to be prime minister. Why are you not declaring yourself as a candidate for prime minister in the upcoming elections?
"Everything will come in time. My obsession is not the job, but to fundamentally change the state of the country. My goal is to make it clear to the public that it is possible otherwise. This other, is a government that it simply understands in the coming years that it puts aside almost everything. If I am prime minister today , I put aside almost everything. Security and Political Urgent - I deal, but other than that, I get up in the morning as Prime Minister, personally take care from morning to night of taking over the Corona, make sure there are some tests, some hotels, some epidemiological investigations.
"It is possible to create a different reality." The scene of the rocket fall in Ashdod // Photo: Liron Moldovan
"I do not try to glorify the situation, I do not say 'I am the best in the world and you will see my amazing achievements.' A true leader, in the moment of truth, goes into great detail, builds strong and excellent leadership around him, delegates authority. I do not understand so far what the goal of Israel is. "Do we want to reset the corona? To bring in 400 people a day? Does anyone know what will happen in three weeks? What compensation will there be? Does anyone know what the curriculum is? It is an amateurish conduct that suits the shtetl."
The spirit of what you said is a reflection on Netanyahu. Why not say - I stand in front of him. point.
"When there are elections we will represent it, but I want to draw for people, who will understand. People are now depressed because they think it is destiny. I explain to them - it is not destiny. You can work on data and not on feelings. We can have monitoring on all. "A sewage system and we will know that a building was infected in Corona before its occupants were infected. The Weizmann Institute and the private market can be operated."
Are you actually an iPhone 12 and Netanyahu an iPhone 11?
"Maybe an iPhone 12 versus Nokia. The current leadership is tired; Netanyahu has contributed a lot over the years to the State of Israel, for decades. But there is fatigue, lack of focus, managerial and leadership failure of the government, the biggest failure in the history of the State of Israel."
failure.
"Unequivocally. Is there a terrible managerial failure of leadership that Israel has never known? Yes. Is it time for new blood? Yes. Do we need new, energetic, creative, energetic leadership that looks into the eyes of the people? Yes."
So you see yourself as an alternative to Netanyahu's rule.
"I think the public can look at my short period as defense minister, and understand what kind of leadership I present and we present. You know, during the Corona period, I came to my family, children, Gilat, and I said goodbye to them at the beginning of the Corona, I said, Dad goes to war. "They were a little confused and had a hard time, but I came and worked, and I opened the bed next to the bureau, in a side room, and I worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
You got up in the morning for school.
"Including Saturdays. Around the clock, to get the country out of the bar, and we set up hotels and I brought My Heritage against the position of officials, against the position of the Ministry of Health."
"Revoked the order." Ganz // Photo: Alex Kolomoisky
Netanyahu did not get up?
"No, Netanyahu is not focused on the corona. Unequivocally no. He is dealing with a lot of other things. This is not how close management looks. At the moment, the prime minister should be the projector of the corona."
So you say I, Naftali Bennett, stand in front of Benjamin Netanyahu, I bring something else.
"Unequivocal".
"We have become a leper country"
The 20 seats on the right in the polls are attributed in no small part to Bennett's activism as defense minister during the Corona period.
His popularity, right and left, made him "Mr. Corona," and Bennett was quick to establish the image in a book he recently published ("How to Beat a Plague," published by Sela Meir).
We are in an epidemic, why did you write a book? Is it PR?
"The book is basically an action plan for the State of Israel not only around the epidemic, but also how to launch the State of Israel. I am in the opposition, my job is to present the alternative vision for dressing up, shuffling, confusing."
No one knows anything about the corona. It is an epidemic that is deceiving the whole world. Here, closing in Europe.
"I deny what you say, because states that are doing the right thing know how to take over, and I give the example of Georgia, Rwanda and Ghana and Massachusetts and the state of New York."
New York State has taken over the plague?
"Yes, it is now under a managed outline. No country in the world has the loss of control we deserve."
How many died in New York State?
"It's the first wave."
We will make the balance at the end of the last wave, or when the vaccine arrives. At this point in time, in the number of casualties we are infinitely far away.
"Okay, and inexorably worse than Georgia. I see the Prime Minister always chooses the countries with the worst numbers.
I want to be the best country.
We are the start-up nation, we should have been a light to the Gentiles.
Show the world not only how to control an epidemic, but how to deploy sewage monitoring technologies;
How the Weizmann Institute reaches a situation where every person can be tested once a week.
We had to bring to Israel half a million young people from the United States and France, who knocked on the doors but closed them to them. To the Jews.
"Ideological Drive." Ayelet Shaked // Photo: Efrat Eshel
"Instead we are a leper country, we are the reddest country in the world. I am ashamed when I look. In the first wave I gave seminars to ambassadors in the OECD and the EU on how to take over, and now we are joking and atoll. All the world press has reported that Israel is the first country in the world. ".
You talk in your book about the theory of hammer and tweezers. Hammer is closed, tweezers are breaking adhesive chains. The government is currently opting for a hammer. Would you do it differently?
"In the first wave we used a hammer. What is the purpose of the hammer? To buy very valuable time, because people at home have mental difficulties, livelihood problems, and during this time one must quickly set up a chain cutting system and reach a state where tests are available." "The government has dealt with yes or no fourth elections."
You also messed around.
"No. As defense minister, I dealt with it 24/7."
Why did you not approve a set of epidemiological tests?
"Let's make an order. In general, the Ministry of Defense, ostensibly, what does it have to do with the matter? I asked the prime minister as early as March, transfer the authority to me, because we know how to do it. I asked several times, Prime Minister Netanyahu refused time and time again. Although he did not move, I took responsibility for inspections, I brought, against the position of the Ministry of Health, also against the position of the Prime Minister, the company My Heritage. Then I went and set up the hotels, even when it was not in my power, I took over the concern to 300 thousand Elderly people, to Bnei Brak, to Deir al-Assad.
"Judgments must be kept, because we went to find out about it for two thousand years." Bennett in conversation with Yaakov Bardugo // Photo: Arik Sultan
"The heart of sin and the heart of error, Yaakov, is that in the two months we bought, in May-June, the government engaged in elections, endless internal quarrels, and did not touch Corona, did not increase the scope of tests and we were left with 27 nurses doing tests instead of 3,000. This criminal negligence, currently 9 million people are in quarantine, do not see grandparents on holiday, lose livelihood. It is the fault of the government, not the fault of the Corona. And when I see a prime minister standing and patting himself on the shoulder and saying, 'I am wonderful, I made great decisions' - it "The root of the public's loss of trust in this government is that the public sees a government that says all its actions are perfect, when everyone sees the magnitude of the disengagement."
Should demonstrations be allowed during the hammer, during the closure, or even during the tweezers, when there is a fear of gatherings?
"The right to protest is an important right but it is not an absolute right. There is a more important right than this and that is the right to life. Therefore my rule is the law of demonstrations as a law of prayers. If I see the government regulate prayers, put people in capsules, even though many more people would like to go to synagogue "To pray for what you can, you have to apply a very sharp and clear series, give a purple mark to the demonstrations. Because once there are uncontrollable demonstrations in Balfour, it gives an alibi to the artist, and that in turn gives an alibi to clubs, and everyone here forms. But for that.
And during this time you support the strong hand of the police towards violators of guidelines?
"Yes. I'm addressing the public - the fact that there is someone else who has broken guidelines, do not say, 'Well, they are demonstrating in Balfour, then I will go to an illegal wedding.' We are in a boat together, Jews, Arabs, religious, secular, ultra-Orthodox. "Then he drills a hole in the boat, so what, as a punishment, do you also drill a hole in the boat? After all, we drowned in the end.
"No I danced in Washington"
The conversation between us takes place in a dramatic political week.
When Netanyahu and Trump presented the plan of the century to the White House, Bennett, the former director general of the Yesha Council, called for immediate sovereignty over all settlement even before the election.
It now appears that even partial sovereignty is being rejected in favor of agreements with the Gulf states.
"You said in the past that you are in favor of the peace of the right," I ask him, "did you mean what Netanyahu is doing now?"
Bennett's new book
"First of all, I welcome these agreements. I would like to see in advance the details of the agreement. If there were no concessions here it would be wonderful, but maybe they were here. It was published, and I have not heard a denial, that they waived sovereignty for years to come."
If there is such a concession, will you vote against the peace agreement?
"If you ask me, sovereignty in the Land of Israel or Bahrain - then sovereignty in the Land of Israel. Because sovereignty is for generations. Agreements come and go. Setting the borders of our country is an opportunity for centuries to come. After all, the current borders were set in San Remo, and then relinquished. Parts of the country without again.When you set your border in the Jordan Valley, as the Prime Minister promised and for that he went to the polls, and that was his ticket, it was dramatic.
And if he gave it up, I think it's a mistake.
Neither the Emirates nor Bahrain are making peace with us because of a waiver of sovereignty.
They are making peace with us because it is American pressure and their interest. "
Have you ever seen someone do something without interest?
"All right, so I say, we should not give up sovereignty in the Land of Israel. When the prime minister says 'it is peace for peace', it is inaccurate. It is peace in exchange for relinquishing sovereignty. "It would also bring an economy."
Would you insist on sovereignty and reject peace with the Emirates and Bahrain?
"No I said I was bringing sovereignty, no I was dancing in Washington. This is the Prime Minister announced Accept the people and the world. You ask me, whether if I accept sovereignty for generations over the Land of Israel or an agreement at the moment, it could be brought in two more years, three more, "Interests do not change. They are under pressure from Iran, they see Israel as an economic power, although this power was very much damaged during the Corona period. So I say, sovereignty in our country, yes."
It seems that the public, even in Yesha, is quite forgiving of the non-application of sovereignty. Perhaps you actually represent a small wing? Perhaps the settlements are given too much importance?
"I do not see the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria as sectoral, interested only in the settlers, but as something Beit El and Hebron do not belong to the settlers, they belong to me and you and all the people of Israel. And when Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov Avinu are buried in Hebron, they are the fathers of those who live in Netivot and those who live in Tel Aviv. We are here in Tel Aviv. "
A younger generation demands freedom
You are harshly critical of the bureaucracy in the book. You also point out that in-depth reforms need to be made in the public sector, and talk about a 20 per cent cut in executive pay.
"Unequivocally. I think it is a crime of lack of solidarity that up to this point, government ministers have not cut 20 percent of their salaries. I tried, they did not allow me to cut so I allocate every month, from March until now, 20 percent of my salary to needy families. But it should be Not voluntarily but by a government decision, and if necessary legislation. "
Not just government ministers.
"For all the salaries of senior officials in the economy and for the high budget pensions. Differently. Nothing will happen if a person who receives a budget pension of NIS 50,000 today receives NIS 40,000 and 10,000 goes to help the self-employed who fall under the burden. We are in a difficult crisis, but the truth is "That goes smoothly. Because the salary knocks every month."
You also say that extending unemployment eligibility until June 2021 is “nonsense,” and recommends unemployment. And what at the same time?
"Take Yossi, let's say, a 26-year-old guy who worked for five months as a waiter, and now has a paid challah until June.
And it's a kind of pleasant feeling that you're getting money and everything's fine.
But what Yossi does not understand is that Yoni will arrive, and in the meantime he is moving away from work.
I would take the same money and equip Yossi with quality training, using the vouchers method.
He will study digital design for five months at the expense of the state, at the end of which he will get a job.
The policy I believe in is not to put people at home, but to make sure they have a quality livelihood. "
You said cuts, you said harm to budgetary pensions in the public sector. If you are Minister of Finance, do you go head to head with the Histadrut, even with a strike?
"I do everything necessary, including if it requires a struggle with the Histadrut, then yes, when the goal is to liberate the younger generation. Yesterday I met 12 young people about 26 years old, students in colleges and universities. The picture they described to me is one in which they do not see a future. "They do not know how to pay the tuition. They are currently unemployed, have returned home to live with their parents, and they say, you, the previous generation, that you worked us for the debts we will have to pay."
The whole world is enslaved to debt. In America $ 3 trillion, in Europe $ 2 trillion.
"It's okay to take money from the future, if it's for the sake of building the future. But I want to see the money go to investing infrastructure, to building strong public transportation, to harnessing the public to a series of actions."
"We brought, Netanyahu intercepted"
Bezalel Smutrich proposed that the president of the Supreme Court be appointed by the Knesset. Do you support his proposal?
"There are a number of things that need to be done to restore balance between the authorities. Among other things, should the method of appointing judges be changed? Yes. Have we made proposals in the past? Yes. The one who intercepted these proposals was the Likud."
How will you limit the rule of jurists? Ayelet Shaked also failed.
"First, Ayelet Shaked also appointed conservative judges to the Supreme Court, and in a very complex procedure she managed to appoint Judge Stein, who brings a different voice."
But it did not resolve Khan al-Ahmar, the overcoming, the placement of the body that criticizes the prosecution.
"I will be very sharp: I in the cabinet, together with Ayelet Shaked, voted for the removal of Khan al-Ahmar. Netanyahu intercepted it. We passed a law restricting the auditor's ability to visit in real time. This".
So what's your way?
"Changing the method of appointing judges, eliminating the ground of reasonableness and reducing the right to stand. But these are things you do not do out loud and in the 9th. I am not in favor of destroying the Supreme Court, I am in favor of correcting it. I am in favor of restoring the balance that came with Aharon Barak. I think it should be unequivocally corrected, but thoroughly and not with shrieks or around a personal issue. "
You said you were in favor of abolishing proportionality and reasonableness.
"The purpose of the High Court is to ensure that the citizen is not trampled on by an opaque government.
It is basically designed to protect the citizen from Kafkaesque situations.
It is not meant to be a body that says, this official has made a decision that is not visible to us.
It doesn't work that way. "
There is a situation that will make a judgment of the Supreme Court?
"No".
Even if it seems to you that it exceeds the probability?
"We must obey the law and judgments. I will tell you why, Jacob, because the last time we played with these things, a country disintegrated for us and we went into exile for two thousand years."
But this is exactly the surrender to the situation.
"No, then you have to change the method of choice - do not say, I do not uphold judgments. Because then everyone will do what he wants, we will have riots here on the street."
You said to change the method of appointing judges, but how?
"Increase the weight of the elected within the Judicial Appointments Committee."
To an absolute majority.
"Yes, to a great extent."
Will the right of veto be the judges'?
"No. Take the veto from them. All over the world there is almost no situation where judges appoint judges. In the US we know these hearings, and in Germany and all over the world there are balances and someone else chooses the judges."
There seem to be a lot of problems in the Israel Police. We see this in the morning news, a decrease in public confidence in law enforcement as well, in the police. Do you have an in-depth treatment plan there as well?
"I think every body needs significant and external audit, and the audit bodies need to be strengthened. But there are two sides to the tango, and the one who over the years appoints the Civil Service representative, the one who appoints the commissioners, the one who appoints the legal advisers, first and foremost the government and the head The government.
So please be respectful, appoint reformers. "
Maybe they are afraid of them? Ayelet Shaked also said in an interview with me, when she was Minister of Justice, that she surrendered to Shai Nitzan in the establishment of a commission of inquiry into Ruth David, where the great story of the reform that was required began.
"If there is a claim that everything has been frozen for 11 years, then there will be a reformer."
Will you be a reformer?
"Yes, I will be a reformer. The civil service must reform. A lot of good people are there, but not always the good ones progress on the basis of proven abilities, on the basis of virtues, but often on the basis of other things. And if there is stagnation, if there is dust stuck, even I'm a prime minister, yes, I'm making a dramatic reform of the public service. "
Do you sew bags in the State of Israel?
"As far as Prime Minister Netanyahu is concerned, there has been over-enthusiasm, over-investment from the beginning of the law enforcement agencies in front of him. I do not know if there are things in the body or not, it will become clear in court."
Were you in favor of stopping the trial at the moment and finding out all the issues - leave it to the state until all the allegations are examined?
"In principle I am in favor of French law alongside the restriction of tenure. I am not in favor of a retroactive personal application of French law."
Despite the revelations of Amit Segal, despite what was revealed in Kinneret's petition in my head, will we go to court?
"I heard that the prime minister also said that he has confidence in the court. I also have confidence in the court."
You do not think this is a reason to stop and think, even if it is kind of retroactive?
"I am against retroactive personnel moves. The Likud has been in power since 1977 and it has not established it to this day. I think it is a very big mistake to attach all the constitutional changes of the State of Israel to persons. This is a mistake, because it makes it irrelevant. I say "You have to arrange the legal system here with the right work, but not around a persona, because then everything becomes quarrels."
"I left quiet in confidence"
You were defense minister for half a year. What did you provide during this period? And where do you feel you did not deliver?
"First of all, it's really a job that he catches you 24 hours a day, you walk around with the red phone next to you, you have no day or night in this job. But among the things I marked it is an economic and all-encompassing pursuit of terrorism, so for the first time we confiscated terrorist Israeli families' money. I gave an order that now the cabinet has ratified it, that no one's bodies be released. We destroyed the houses of terrorists at a rapid pace, and I issued the most effective order, which is an order that prevents the transfer of funds to terrorists. It succeeded, the families of the terrorists raged, exerted pressure and pressure came to me through the PA. It.
I did not agree.
Unfortunately, with Gantz taking office, one of the first actions was to revoke the order.
"The second thing is to move from blocking Iran in Syria to pushing Iran out of Syria. And the third thing is settlement. I approved for the first time in 22 years the construction of a new neighborhood in the city of ancestors, then a leaflet in the Cave of the Patriarchs, and then 7,000 houses in Efrat."
And what about the Gaza Strip?
"I inherited a fierce border of rockets, incendiary balloons, fences in the fence every Friday, and I left complete silence for those who replaced me. I went down to Ashdod on Tuesday night to meet residents in the neighborhood where the missile fell. Unfortunately, they were used to fate. It is not. It is possible to create a different reality. 48 hours, but in the transition from passivity and defense, to initiative and creativity. Half a year as defense minister is a very short period. The responsibility of approval to send soldiers to dangerous operations, it is definitely something that teaches a lot, and I must compliment the prime minister, he never prevented my decision ".
Say, there's a sense that you're like an energizer's rabbit. You are running - here I am in Beit El, here I am in my health, here I am in Shoham. Where do the energies come from?
"I can not stand back when I see my people suffering because of leadership failures. It was not in my plan; I was in high tech for many years and made an exit for $ 145 million. I did not owe politics. I'm not here for the money, the power or The honor, except that in the Second Lebanon War I lost friends because of a failure of leadership. I saw how the people of the north pay a price for this failure. Then I swore to myself that I would do everything so that if there was such a situation again, I would be there, in the leadership. When I saw that my leadership failure could lead to the Yom Kippur attack in the south of hundreds of Hamas commando fighters kidnapping and killing civilians and soldiers - I fought and was silent. And today it's the situation again. A corner in the country, until we fix it and get the people out of it. "