Bennett managed to become the only prime minister not Bibi, but not Netanyahu's successor
After almost being eulogized under the blocking percentage, Naftali Bennett surprised with a comeback and fulfilled a dream that they did not achieve - to replace Netanyahu.
Despite the ridicule, he has become a legitimate leader and wears the first kippah in the bureau, but now he is isolated and weak, without a bureau and party - and the coalition is counting down
His dew
09/06/2022
Thursday, 09 June 2022, 16:30 Updated: 17:06
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Exactly a year ago, Naftali Bennett swore allegiance as the 13th Prime Minister of the State of Israel and was recorded in the pages of history as the one who brought the end of Benjamin Netanyahu's 12 consecutive years in power.
A decade after entering politics and two years after being eulogized below the blocking percentage, he made an almost illogical comeback, straight to the important bureau in the country;
With only seven seats, he fulfilled a dream that older and older people in Israeli politics failed to achieve, and also the dream of the Gush Shinui voters - to get Netanyahu out of Balfour and replace him.
Only within the deep political tangle could a situation arise in which eight parties with no common ideological denominator join hands in the same coalition, and Bennett seized the rare opportunity that fell into his hands, even if it arose in violation of his main election promises.
Thus, the one who began his career in politics as Netanyahu's chief of staff, has become the prime minister of the only non-Bibi, and has been holding the keys and steering wheel of the country in his hands for a year.
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Most of the public has gotten used to it.
Bennett at a cabinet meeting (Photo: Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel)
Some around Netanyahu continue to call him "prime minister" even now, but most of the public has become accustomed to Bennett changing his name after the title.
And this is perhaps his greatest achievement in the last year - he proved that not only Netanyahu can, and that even after his departure the earth did not fall;
Israel survived the fifth wave of the corona without closures and without the collapse of the health system, the government passed a biennial budget that gave the economy horizon and stability, foreign relations and regional ties stable and deep, and except for the bloody month of April when terrorism raised its head and claimed the lives of 19 Israeli victims Even one of the quietest years in terms of security in the last decade.
Even if Bennett and his government are very disliked, and there are many in the public and in politics, it is difficult to argue that he succeeded in his first year in the field of activity, noting that he is at least "passing."
On a personal level, after years of his leadership dreams being a source of joke and ridicule, he has made himself a legitimate prime ministerial candidate, a certificate that could serve him well in the future.
In the video: The Prime Minister addresses the political crisis (Photo: Roni Knafo)
But Bennett's great failure, which he probably will no longer be able to correct, is in filling his predecessor's big shoes in office and establishing himself as Netanyahu's successor in the right - wing leadership.
The former chairman of the Yesha Council was the first to enter the prime minister's office with a skullcap, one of the most right-wing among all 13 who preceded him, but he failed to use the status, resources and power at his disposal to conquer the hearts of the right.
The powerful propaganda campaign of Netanyahu and his supporters against the government, including the branding of Bennett as a "crook," succeeded beyond expectation, slowly disintegrating his party and entourage, leaving Bennett without an audience at home.
The government of change and healing has failed to change or cure the deep political polarization, and to convince the right that there is an alternative to Netanyahu.
On the contrary, at one point Bennett seemed to be falling in love with the role of the only-not-Bibi prime minister, as he began to adapt to the rhetoric and narrative of the opposing camp: he preferred to become Netanyahu's antithesis and seek new audiences at the center than his rightful successor.
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No audience at home.
Bennett at the gate of his home in Raanana (Photo: Dror Einav)
In the past year in the Prime Minister's Office, it has also become clear that Bennett is not necessarily so different from Netanyahu, or at least inherited some of his infamous leaders.
Like its predecessor, it also periodically uses the security needs of the state for self-boasting and internal needs;
The shadow war in Iran is eroding the boundaries of ambiguity policies, and when the agenda needs to be changed there are also leaks from confidential cabinet discussions.
Also the megalomaniacal mediation experience between Russia and Ukraine, Bennett did, mainly, to prove that he too is a "different league" and a player of international stature.
Like Netanyahu, Bennett has also had occasional scandals and storms over personal and family matters at home: the renovations in Balfour and Raanana, his wife Gilat's trip abroad at the height of the Omicron panic, the family's hedonistic deliveries from Walt, and more recently the crumbling bureau's plots. Who abandon the sinking ship and express distrust in it.
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An ironic twist.
Netanyahu in the plenum (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Bennett also failed to maintain his political home: seven seats soon became six, with the retirement of Amichai Shikli, and later five with the defection of Idit Silman, and the hand of Nir Orbach, Avir Kara, and Ayelet Shaked is still slanted and may end his term.
A year after taking office, Bennett is more isolated and weak than ever, with no bureau, no party, and no clear political future, and the government he heads is thinking its way back.
And it seems that his tenure is about to register as an ironic twist: the one who replaced the prime minister with the longest tenure in the history of Israel will be the prime minister with the shortest tenure in history.
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