Lacking Bibi’s star quality, what does tech millionaire Naftali Bennett bring to one of the most demanding jobs on earth?  

Photos: Flash90

With reporting by Omri Nahmias

It was a glorious Mediterranean afternoon at the Herzliya Conference, a high-level policy confab, in July 2019. Under azure skies and to the sound of private planes taking off from a nearby airstrip, hundreds of people walked around peering at each other’s lanyards, sizing up whether they’d met someone worth knowing. Senior American think-tankers rubbed shoulders with former Israeli police chiefs; diplomats spoke with journalists; there was even a Greek admiral sparkling in his dress whites and gold braid.

As the afternoon wore on, A-list ministers like Likud’s Yisrael Katz arrived with security details; left-wing politicians such as former foreign minister Tzipi Livni were greeted with a media scrum; and Mossad boss Yossi Cohen made the rounds like a superstar.

Then came Naftali Bennett. Billed as a “former education minister”, the entrance of the right-wing leader, whose meteoric rise had marked him as future prime ministerial material, was a study in humility.

He made his way quickly to the podium through the hall unaccompanied. Chastened-sounding, he acknowledged his resounding political failure, having bolted his old Bayit Yehudi party and failed to enter the Knesset on a new slate. To hear him casting around for a cause was nothing short of painful. That afternoon, the phrase that most aptly captured Bennett’s fall from grace was Dovid HaMelech’s lament for Shaul: “Eich naflu giborim.”

What a difference two years makes. Barring the ritual disclaimer that in Israeli politics nothing can be predicted, Bennett could well achieve the impossible next week. The man who was cast into the wilderness will eject Bibi Netanyahu from the prime minister’s residence; with fewer parliamentary seats to his name than Degel HaTorah’s Moshe Gafni, Naftali Bennett will represent Israel on the world stage.

It’s an unmatched tale of political rags-to-riches, and it raises a simple question central to Israel’s path ahead: who is Naftali Bennett?

Son of American olim, special-forces soldier, high-tech millionaire, right-wing meteor, fluent defender of Israel in the media — Bennett’s resume is well-known. But less understood is what drives him. How could a senior right-wing leader abandon his natural base to cross party lines, and what does it mean for how he’ll govern? What role has alter ego Ayelet Shaked played in his political ascent? And is the man who once revered Bibi and is touted as “Netanyahu Mk. II” really up to the task of taking the reins from one of the most gifted statesmen of the century?

In conversations on and off the record with people who’ve observed Bennett up close, the picture that emerges is of a man whose strength lies in clearheaded management, not inspired leadership; a machine politician with an immigrant’s touching sense of patriotism; and a clean record even after years in public service.

But above all is his drive: “When Naftali wants something,” said a former army subordinate, “he gets it.”

Double Trouble