Naftali Bennett has returned to the public arena and is doing it with all his might and efficiency. He walks around the field, among the soldiers, visits families, travels to hospitals to visit the wounded, fights at the forefront of information on foreign networks and even started a cute matchmaking project.
In Israel, as in Israel, sincere and beautiful efforts have political implications. On Thursday morning, quite a few people received a poll more suited to an election season than a time of war. The main question was: "If a new right-wing liberal party headed by Naftali Bennett ran in new Knesset elections, and the other parties were unchanged, who would you vote for?"
Former Prime Minister Bennett confronts BBC presenter // Photo: BBC Broadcast
Bennett claims that he has never distributed such a survey, and from an examination it appears that this is indeed the case. In any case, there are growing signs on the ground that he is groping his way back to the Israeli public and intends to run in the next Knesset elections.
After leaving politics, Naftali Bennett's team disbanded and he was left with only a personal assistant. In recent weeks, his media people have also returned to the picture. For example, Adi Atlas, who works as an internal communications manager at El Al and in the past was his head of digital and confidant, recently returned to hang out with him.
In recent weeks, she has been traveling with him in the field, documenting his activity and uploading content to Twitter and Instagram, first in the emergency warehouses of the reserves, and later also in field tours and interviews with the international media that he carried out.
"Doesn't come close to anything political", Netanyahu and Bennett (archive), photo: Jonathan Zindel / Flash 90
So where is Naftali Bennett headed? This can be learned from a small specification with great significance: When Bennett last ran for office, a Twitter profile under the name "Yamina" was changed to a profile called "Yamina - the unofficial account." In an instant, the profile became very unusual in the political landscape - non-stop activity, sharing, bites to competitors and particularly blunt and loose language. During the election campaign, his people tried to keep the identity of the page's operators secret, but last year it became known that they were Bennett's social media people, and he himself had access to the account.
And pay attention to this - this week suddenly the profile name changed from "Yamina - The Unofficial Account" to "Pro-State of Israel". Why is this important? Because it is not far-fetched to assume that Bennett sees the polls, Benny Gantz's growing popularity, the aura of the center and the consensus, and prefers to abandon the label "right-wing" and concentrate "for the State of Israel."
Bennett proposes a siege on Gaza, IDF forces near the Gaza Strip, photo: AP.
All these steps do not go unnoticed by sharp-eyed politicians – and they arouse much anger and criticism among them.
"Military program on TV"
"On the eve of the big military maneuver, when forces enter Gaza, Bennett publishes his 'siege plan' in the media," says a political source. "What defense minister and former prime minister who wants to influence the system publishes a military program on television on the night of the great maneuver? If you want this to become a real program - work quietly.
"After all, you know senior officials in the army, the Shin Bet, the Mossad, security – and you can offer them these ideas. If you go with a military plan for the media, it looks like the mission is not to help the IDF but to increase likes."
Bennett doesn't need to convince the Israelis - he needs to convince the world, anti-Israel demonstrations in New York, photo: AFP
The criticism does not end there, and also focuses on the issue of public relations. "It's true that he appears and gives interviews a lot, but Bennett doesn't have to convince the Israelis – he has to convince the world," the source adds. "An American woman sits in front of the screen and instead of hearing about the atrocities, the murder and the harrowing stories, she sees the former prime minister shouting at the BBC host. It doesn't help. It's easy to go to the BBC, which is considered hostile to Israel, yell at the host and stop interviews. It brings applause among Israelis. It helps bring 'likes' in Israel but doesn't help with hasbara."
Bennett: "Not approaching politics"
Bennett's office said in response: "Former Prime Minister Bennett is working only to strengthen the fighters, to help in the information war by marathon interviews in the foreign media and to strengthen bereaved families.
"He doesn't come close to anything political and has nothing to do with the Twitter account in question."
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