Bennett says, ‘One bombing attack’ could have stopped Auschwitz

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, the Israeli government representative at the 29th March of the Living at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland on Monday, observed, “There’s only 4 gas chambers, 4. The allies, they knew exactly where they are…One bombing attack could have stopped the killing.”

Bennett on CNN: "Palestinians need to stop incitement. Words kill."

Bennett to Sky News: Don't Sit in London and Call Us Apartheid Watch: Interviewed on Sky News, Economy Minister says calling Israel an "apartheid state" is a blatant lie.

Referring to Israel as an “apartheid state” is a “blatant lie”, Economy Minister and Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett said on Thursday.

Bennett gave a series of interviews to international media outlets and, in one of these interviews, was asked by a Sky News interviewer whether he is “worried” that the term “apartheid” is being used by some British parliamentarians in reference to Israel.

“That’s a blatant lie,” responded Bennett. “[Israel is] the only country in this area that treats its 1.5 million minority of Muslims, of Arabs, with full equal rights. They vote for our parliament. They have members of parliament. They pay taxes. They go to work. They enjoy full equal rights.”

“I don’t recall that in Saudi Arabia women can drive, and I do remember a few Arab states that kill gays and stone them. And I know that Syria is butchering its own people,” he continued. “So for you to suggest that Israel is an apartheid state when we’re the only place in the Middle East that provides full equal rights to citizens - that’s a blatant lie and I don’t accept that approach.”

“You should be praising Israel for being in a very tough situation,” Bennetttold the interviewer. “Fighting in a world of Al-Qaeda and Hamas and ISIS now. And for you to sit in London and call us apartheid, that’s unacceptable.”

“We’re fighting your war, make no mistake. If this Islamic regime comes and flows over Israel, it’s going to hit London. In fact, it is. They killed a soldier on London’s streets. And they’re going to do that again,” warnedBennett.

Israel Matzav: Naftali Bennett v. Sky News: 'When buses exploded in London, they gave out candies in Gaza'

Naftali Bennett deals with a difficult Sky News reporter who apparently thinks that Israel should supply Hamas with Iron Dome and should allow Hamas to use human shields. 

Let's go to the videotape.



This woman is unbelievable....

"Are you kidding me?" - Bennett responds to hostile Sky News anchor

Bennett on BBC: Jews Lived in Israel before Brits Lived in Britannia

Bennett: One Cannot 'Occupy' His Own Homeland; Economy Minister responds to CNN's Christiane Amanpour who asked about Israeli construction in the "occupied West Bank."

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home/Bayit Yehudi) on Monday pointed out in an interview on CNN that there is no such thing as “Israeli occupation” in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.

Bennett was asked by Christiane Amanpour to comment on HousingMinister Uri Ariel’s decision last week to issue tenders for 20,000 new homes in Judea and Samaria.

When Amanpour, however, used the term “occupied West Bank” in her question, Bennett held up a coin which, he pointed out, was “used by Jews 2,000 years ago in the state of Israel.”

Amanpour tried to interrupt Bennett by saying that “occupied West Bank” was “an international term” but Bennett continued, “I don’t accept it. This coin, which says in Hebrew ‘freedom of Zion’ was used by Jews 2,000 years ago in the state of Israel, in what you call ‘occupied’”.

“One cannot occupy his own home,” stressed Bennett.

He also reiterated once again that he opposes the so-called “two-state solution”.

“I think trying to enforce [an] artificial state in the heart of Israel, in Jerusalem, is a grave mistake,” Bennett declared.

“If the Palestinians want peace they have to do one simple thing: Recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland. That’s all. But if they don’t do that, if they don’t recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, they can’t expect peace,” he told Amanpour.

In the same interview, Bennett warned that a bad nuclear deal between Iran and world powers “will lead to war.”

“There’s no one who wants a war less than us,” he emphasized. “However, it’s one of those cases where a bad deal will lead to a war, and a gooddeal with actually prevent war.”

A good deal, Bennett said, would be one that “dismantles the nuclear weapon production machine.”

'You Can't be an Occupier in Your Own Home' In candid TV interview, Bayit Yehudi head says the lesson from world inaction on Syria is that Israel can only trust G-d and its own might.

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) reassured the public on Monday that in his opinion, the citizens of Israel will not come under any attack from Syria, and explained why he is firmly against the establishment of a "Palestinian State" in Judea and Samaria.

Speaking on the KnessetChannel, he said that Israelis could go on living their lives' normally and even noted, when asked, that his family has not renewed its supply of gas masks yet.

Asked if he was disappointed by US President Barack Obama's decision to hold off on attacking Syria until Congress debates the idea, he said that he does not want to give advice to the US President. He added, however, that "Israeli citizens have to be realistic and know that at the end of the day, 'If I am not for myself – who will be for me?' [a Talmudic adage in favor of self-reliance – ed.]. If we do not take care of our own security, no one else will. Look at how the entire world is reacting to the murder of 1,000 children with gas."

“All things told,” he said, “the world is stuttering. And on the day of truth we can only depend on ourselves. Not international guarantees, no relying on agreements – in the end, our strength, which comes from our hold upon the Land and our belief in the Land, [and] the IDF where I still serve in the reserves and am proud of it – that is what will keep us alive here.”

"We have to look at what is happening and internalize the lessons,” he explained. “In the moment of truth, the world will not be with us. The people who now want to hand over Judea and Samaria in exchange for guarantees from the world, should see what is happening. The world turns its back.”

Similar comments have been made by a number of Israeli politicians in the past few days, as the perceived dithering of the Obama administration is watched carefully by friend and foe alike, splitting Arab opinion and provoking ridicule from the Syrian regime and its allies.

Asked whom we can trust, Bennett said – “first of all, we have G-d, but also our own strength. We will not depend on the world anymore. We will not! Seventy years ago, when we hoped that the world would be there, they were not. No one was," he said, in a reference to the failure by the Allies to bomb Nazi extermination camps during the Holocaust.

"We are not occupiers"

In a wide-ranging 30-minute interview with Nehama Duek, Bennett firmly rebuffed her contention that Israel is an occupying power in Judea and Samaria.

“We are not occupiers. You cannot be an occupier in your own home. Internalize this, Nehama. We are not controlling them, they have been ruling themselves for a long time.”

“In Lebanon, in Syria, in Egypt, everything is in chaos. The only stable place is here, in our land. We have stability and quiet thanks to the IDF, from the fact that we are present in Judea and Samaria and that we live there. The same geniuses who told us that if we give Syria the Golan Heights we will have peace, are now telling us that we have to hand over Judea and Samaria. I don't accept this."

When Bennett described his proposal for applying Israeli sovereignty on parts of Judea and Samaria – Duek protested that the Palestinians want a state.

“Okay,” he said. “And I want to live. What takes precedence? My will to live? My wanting that my four children survive – or their will to have a state and an army that will annihilate me? What can I do? Even though they'd really love to annihilate me, they have no partner in this. I have this bug in my system – I love to live in my country."

During the interview, Bennett spoke about national unity, saying that part of his political mission is to unite different streams in the nation, and “to lower tensions.”

On August 22, Bennett had a similar message for the public regarding the Syria gas attack: 

“Seventy years ago, when they annihilated children and babies, the world was silent,” he wrote. “The internet and television stations are not moving the world out of its complacency. Images of mass graves and piles of children cannot pass in silence.”

"A child is a child is a child,” he stated. “And don't tell me '[it's just] Arabs killing Arabs.' I will not be silent.”

New Western Wall Plaza: 3 minute tour by Naftali Bennett

Bennett: No One Has the Right to Split Jerusalem Ministers, MKs and rabbis gathered at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva for the annual Jerusalem Day celebration. March to Kotel in early morning.

MK Naftali Bennett, head of the Bayit Yehudi party and Minister of Industry and Trade, felt right at home. Sitting on the dais of the annual Yom Yerushalyim (Jerusalem Day) celebration, marking the 46^thanniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification, on Tuesday night at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva, he sang and pounded on the table along with the hundreds of yeshiva students who later cheered and clapped several times during his speech.

The traditional central celebration of Jerusalem's reunification at the flagship yeshiva of religious Zionism was attended by Defense Minister and former IDF Chief of Staff, MK Moshe ('Bogie') Yaalon, Transportation Minister MK Yisrael Katz, Housing Minister MK Uri Ariel, Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat, Knesset members, Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, Rabbi Dov Lior and other renowned rabbis who came to congratulate the city of Jerusalem.

The study hall was packed as well as the women's section and outside the cordoned-off street, a large screen allowed the overflow crowd to see and hear what was happening inside.

The Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, was greeted by rousing songs when herose to speak. He spoke of the meaning of Jerusalem while alluding subtly to current issues, noting that our sages said that "Jerusalem will reach to Damascus one day" and that "the gates and walls of Jerusalem today are her Torah scholars, who should not have externally-enforced limitations on their number. The Temple Mount is the nucleus of spirituality, not just one of the roads to the Kotel", he stressed.

Turning to Bennett and calling him the friend of Dror and Emanuel (two religious IDF officer heroes killed in action who served with Bennett in his elite commando unit), Rabbi Shapira told him that Jewish industry and trade should not be the same as in other countries, just as our army is unique, and urged him to see that those around him, including the Chief Rabbi, understand this.

The main guest of the evening is usually the Prime Minister, but Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had to miss the event due to his trip to China. Defense Minister Yaalon spoke in his place and called for the strengthening of Jerusalem, saying, “We build Jerusalem physically and spiritually. It is the duty of our generation to protect Jerusalem, keep it, develop it and build it. One does not divide one’s soul,” he concluded.

Transportation Minister Katz announced that there is no need to be concerned about the nations of the world who call to split Jerusalem as part of a peace agreement.

"Jerusalem is ours and will remain ours forever and ever," Katz said, adding that the government invests in Jerusalem. "The government believes in deeds and not just words," said Katz, detailing the Transportation Ministry’s plan for the development of Jerusalem.

Minister Bennett riveted the audience as he attacked in his speech what he called the “invisible divisors” of Jerusalem.

"In recent days we hear about initiatives from the Saudis and from America,” he said. “Some say openly that they are in favor of splitting Jerusalem. I have an argument with them, and I will never give in when it comes to this argument! But there are also these ‘invisible divisors’ - those who say they are against the division of Jerusalem, but they are in favor of a Palestinian state. These ‘invisible divisors’ are against the splitting of Jerusalem, but they freeze construction in our capital city.”

“These invisible divisors,” added Bennett, “do not tell us that they will cause us to give up the Temple Mount and the Old City – which are the heart of the Jewish people – and a heart is indivisible. And I ask all these invisible divisors: Excuse me, but where exactly will be the capital of the Palestinian state be? In Jericho? In Bethlehem? In Berlin?”

"There will be no Palestinian state", he said, to resounding applause.

Recalling the recent visit to Israel of U.S. President Obama, Bennett said, "Already when President Obama visited here I said that a nation cannot be an occupier in its own country, and I say now that a nation cannot be an occupier in its own capital. We are not occupying Jerusalem. Jerusalem is ours! Jerusalem belongs to my grandfather’s grandfather and to my grandson's grandson. Neither I nor anyone else has the right to split it.”

Bennett finished his remarks by quoting the last speech of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin at a ceremony marking Jerusalem’s 3000^th anniversary, which took place in Washington just days before his assassination.

"We disagree on the left and right, we have arguments about our direction and  purpose,” Rabin said back then. “But in Israel we have no debate on one issue: the unity of Jerusalem. There are no two Jerusalems, there is only one Jerusalem. As far as we’re concerned, Jerusalem is not subject to compromise and there will be no peace without Jerusalem.”

In the early hours of the morning, the Mercaz HaRav students will dance and sing their way to the Kotel in long rows, as the hundreds who study at the flagship yeshiva of religious Zionism, named for the first Chief Rabbi Avraham Kook, have done since its liberation.

Bennett in Post-Election Speech: Jewish Home is for Everyone “Today we set up a new home that knows how to protect its residents with martial prowess and power," says Jewish Home chairman.

Naftali Bennett, head of the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party which made an historic achievement in Tuesday’s election, gave a post-election speech at party headquarters on Tuesday night.

Exit polls have predicted that the party will win 12 seats, making it the fourth or fifth largest party in the Knesset.

“My brothers and sisters, today we have established a new home in Israel,” Bennett declared. “Israel is coming back to itself. The Jewish Home is the new home for everyone, of all the people of Israel, of Israel who believes in its strength.”

He added, “Today we set up a new home that knows how to protect its residents not only with concrete, but with martial prowess and power. Our enemies will know that you do not mess with Israel.”

Bennett declared that, "There is one truth - the land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel." He noted that his party is “a home for proud Zionists. A new home that will not be held captive by interest groups, but will fight for lowering the cost of living for the people of Israel. In this home we will act for equal opportunities for all the people of Israel.”

Earlier on Tuesday evening, as he left his home towards his party’s headquarters,Bennett said, “Something new is beginning. Religious Zionism is back on center stage.”

MK Uri Ariel exulted over the results. “There hasn’t been an achievement like this before” for religious Zionism, he declared.

“We hope to continue from here and to help the nation of Israel and the state of Israel,” he said.

The National Religious Party had 10-12 Knesset seats until the the 10th Knesset in 1981, when many of its Sephardic voters moved to the new and short-lived Tami party and in later elections to the newly-formed Shas. The 11-12 seat result in the 2013 elections is thus evidence of significant growth, since Shas and Likud attract religious Zionist voters.

Naftali Bennett: Stop US Aid, Slash Israel’s Military Budget "I think it's none of our business in Israel to intervene in American domestic decisions." By: Yori Yanover

Naftali Bennett’s parents, Jim and Myrna, made Aliyah from America in 1967, and settled in the port city of Haifa. Naftali, one of three brothers, was born on March 25, 1972. He served in the elite IDF units of Sayeret Matkal and Maglan as a company commander and still serves in the reserves, at the rank of Major.

I asked Bennett if he would have to give up his American citizenship, should he become Israel’s prime minister.

“I’m not becoming prime minister quite yet,” Bennett said, laughing out loud, “but, obviously, I’ll follow the law, if I’ll need to forfeit it, like Netanyahu has done. I’m not even sure who needs to do it – a minister, a prime minister – I’ll do whatever is needed.”

(For the record, current US policy requires that a dual citizen renounce their American citizenship if they are serving in a “policy level position” in a foreign government. The same holds true on the Israeli side. Law professor Daphne Barak Erez, born to Israeli parents in the U.S., was named Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel in 2012, which required that she give up her foreign citizenship.)

In 1999, Bennett co-founded and was the CEO of “Cyota,” a hi-tech company making anti-fraud software which he sold in 2005 to RSA Security for $145 million. He is likely the richest politician in Israel – well ahead of Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development Silvan Shalom, who is worth about $40 million.

Perhaps because of his own experience with vigorous American Capitalism, Naftali Benett is in favor of cutting the 40-year-old umbilical cord that still connects Israel to the American Treasury.

“Today, U.S. military aid is roughly 1 percent of Israel’s economy,” Bennett says. “I think, generally, we need to free ourselves from it. We have to do it responsibly, since I’m not aware of all the aspects of the budget, I don’t want to say ‘let’s just give it up,’ but our situation today is very different from what it was 20 and 30 years ago. Israel is much stronger, much wealthier, and we need to be independent.”

When I asked him for his opinion about the nominations of Senator John Kerry for Secretary of State and former Senator Chuck Hagel for Defense, his response was consistent with the former statement:

“I think it’s none of our business in Israel to intervene in American domestic decisions. President Obama gave us his word most vehemently that he would prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon – he said it several times over the past year. He said he has Israel’s back. So I hope and trust that President Obama will follow through on these very powerful commitments.”

In 2006, a wealthy man, Naftali Bennett decided to start giving back. He began serving as Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, when the Likud was still in the opposition. He ran Netanyahu’s primary campaign in 2007 and continued to serve him through 2008.

Rumor has it that Bennett and Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, are not on good terms, to the point where Mrs. Netanyahu—who is as influential in her husband’s decision making as a political wife can be—will put her foot down when it comes to taking the former chief of staff on as coalition partner.

Gilat Bennett, Naftali’s wife, told Channel 2 News earlier this year that she could understand Sara Netanyahu, and empathized with her need to have a voice in the prime minister’s career, and with her desire to show that he “belonged to [her], too.”

In 2010, Bennett, in his role as Director General of the Yesha Council (the coalition of all the Jewish settlements east of the “green line”), was in an all out war against Netanyahu over the government imposed settlement construction freeze. The two are not on friendly terms, although Bennett insists on being cordial and even compliments his old boss now and then. Bibi’s comments about Bennett are outright icy.

I cited TV host Nissim Mishal, on whose show Bennett was ambushed quite crudely into stating that he would refuse an order to evict a Jew from his home—which turned into the media brouhaha of the week, earning Bennett ample condemnations from his enemies, and a 2-3 seat bump in the polls. On the same show, Mishal also suggested (“barked” would better describe his tone of questioning) that Netanyahu hated Bennett so much, there was no chance he would include him in is government.

“We’re going to get along quite well,” Bennett told me. “I worked with Prime Minister Netanyahu for a couple of years, I like the guy. Yes, there are tensions, because we disagree on some stuff, but it’s nothing that 12, 14, or 15 Knesset mandates won’t solve. He’ll get over it…”

I asked Bennett why, in his opinion, the Jewish Home appeals to so many secular Israelis (in recent polls, between 40 and 45 percent of Bennett’s supporters have identified themselves as non-religious).

“People are fed up with the various camps, they want to unite,” the candidate answered in a sharp tone. “They’re fed up with the discourse of hate. They don’t want to hate Haredim, they don’t want to hate the religious, they don’t want to hate the secular, they want to get together and solve problems.”

He added: “That’s what I think is so attractive about us. We’re primarily focused on the younger generation, and I’m very happy that the younger generation is less susceptible to hate rhetoric.”

Bennett’s youth revolution at the Jewish Home party was stunning. In a period of just about three months, Bennett managed to infuse a spirit of youth that resurrected what had been the tiny dual remnants of the religious right – Jewish home and its twin, National Union.

The process wasn’t problem-free by any stretch. National Union ousted through dubious maneuvering two of its major vote getters, MKs Michael Ben Ari and Aryeh Eldad, who are running on an independent list dubbed Power for Israel.

Inside Jewish Home, heir of the ancient NRP (created in 1956 through the merger of Mizrachi and Hapoel HaMizrachi), the party’s traditional apparatus was overwhelmed by the onslaught of Bennett’s new, imaginative and dazzlingly ambitious drive to capture the leadership. It is certainly also a measure of just how frail and decrepit the old party had been, that this outsider, in just three months, defeated the old guard’s candidate Zevulun Orlev by a 67 to 32 margin.

I asked Bennett if he thought there was a chance of brining Eldad and Ben Ari back into the fold.

“Right now, we’re two different parties, and from a legal standpoint we’re running separately. So for now it is what it is,” he quipped.

The Jewish Home platform economic section talks about a “free economy with compassion.” In practice, this means not raising taxes on the middle class, but at the same time they want the safety net for the poor to remain intact, improve education, and maintain military readiness. With a deficit of several billion dollars, how is he planning to do all that?

“The reality is that we have a big deficit. We’re going to have to cut the defense budget, which has doubled over the past decade from $8 billion to $16.4 billion a year,” Bennett recites, then delivers the punchline: “Contrary to what many think, some military threats have actually been reduced. Today’s Egyptian army has no offensive capability—it’s in dire straits. Syria is in no position to send forces into Israel. We can cut there.”

He continues: “We need to free up the economy from the monopolies that are choking it. That will grow the revenue. And we need to free the economy from the strong unions that defend only the richest workers. All these actions will allow Israel’s economy to boom.”

Last month, while Israel’s nurses were on strike, protesting their miserable wages (an RN with decades of seniority earns less than $35 thousand a year), the media revealed that the longshoremen’s union members were averaging $76 thousand, an astonishing salary for manual laborers.

The longshoremen in Israel have the same feisty reputation as, say, the Teamsters in America. I asked Bennett what he would do to break their monopoly.

“What you have to do is create competition,” Bennett said. “And then they’ll be much more efficient and that will reduce the cost of all our products. Because everything is way too expensive in Israel.”

“Now, if you do that – they’ll fight you,” he continues. “So we need to communicate with the Israeli people, explain the problem. Unfortunately, Netanyahu did not follow through on that, nor will Shelly Yachimovich ever do it, because they elected her. The Jewish Home will strive to be a major influence in freeing up the economy.”

Naftali Bennett has been a zealous defender of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, a position that, as I mentioned earlier, has made him many enemies, including his old boss, Netanyahu. I posed to him the idea that the reason the prime minister has been talking about the two-state solution has nothing to do with his commitment to Jewish settlements and everything to do with his acute concern with Iran’s nuclear program.

Simply put, Netanyahu is not going to allow a few thousand settlers to cause Israel to lose favor with the current White House, so that when the time comes to attack the Iranian nuclear plants, Israel would not be standing alone.

“If the time comes to choose between American support and some acquiescence in the area of removing some settlements – what would be your choice?”

“I don’t buy this question,” Bennett responds quickly. “I reject the equation that we have to give up parts of Israel in order to buy quiet. If we follow that path, in twenty years we’ll have nothing left in Israel. It’s not a logical course of action.”

“We need to do what’s necessary for a strong Israel,” he urges. “I assert that handing over more land to our enemies would make Israel a feeble and miserable place. It would bring home the bloodshed and strife between us and the Arabs, just like what’s going on in Gaza—a never ending war—while we have peace and quiet today in Judea and Samaria.”

He promises: “I’ll do everything in my power to reverse the mistaken policies of establishing a Palestinian state within the Land of Israel.”

Finally, is he a career politician, or is he just planning to do this for a few years and do other things in the future?

“As long as I can serve my country, I’ll continue doing it,” he says. “As long as I feel that I’m making a positive impact on the Jewish nation, I’ll do everything in my ability to contribute.”

What’s his vision for the Jewish Home party?

“In the upcoming elections, we want to be the biggest partner for Netanyahu in his next government. It’s a very interesting election, because the next prime minister has already been determined, it’s going to be Netanyahu. The question remains, is it going to be a left-wing coalition of Tzipi Livni, Amir Peretz and Amram Mitzna and Netanyahu – or Jewish Home and Netanyahu. That’s the biggest question in this election, and I’m determined to become the biggest and most influential coalition partner.”

LETTER FROM JERUSALEM; THE PARTY FAITHFUL;The settlers move to annex the West Bank—and Israeli politics

At a makeshift theatre in the port of Tel Aviv, hundreds of young immigrants from Melbourne, the Five Towns, and other points in the Anglophone diaspora gathered recently to hear from the newest phenomenon in Israeli politics, Naftali Bennett. A forty-year-old settlement leader, software entrepreneur, and ex-Army commando, Bennett promises to build a sturdy electoral bridge between the religious and the secular, the hilltop outposts of the West Bank and the start-up suburbs of the coastal plain. This is something new in the history of the Jewish state. Bennett is a man of the far right, but he is eager to advertise his cosmopolitan bona fides. Although he was the director general of the Yesha Council, the main political body of the settler movement, he does not actually live in a settlement. He lives in Ra’anana, a small city north of Tel Aviv that is full of programmers and executives. He is as quick to make reference to an episode of “Seinfeld” as he is to the Torah portion of the week. He constantly updates his Facebook page. A dozen years ago, he moved to the Upper East Side of Manhattan to seek his fortune in high tech, and his wife, Gilat, went to work as a pastry chef at chic restaurants like Aureole, Amuse, and Bouley Bakery. Her crème brûlée, he declares proudly, “restored the faith of the Times food critic in the virtues of crème brûlée.”

Closer to his ideological core is an unswerving conviction that the Palestinian Arabs of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem might as well relinquish their hopes for a sovereign state. The Green Line, which demarcates the occupied territories from Israel proper, “has no meaning,” he says, and only a friyer, a sucker, would think otherwise. As one of his slick campaign ads says, “There are certain things that most of us understand will never happen: ‘The Sopranos’ are not coming back for another season . . . and there will never be a peace plan with the Palestinians.” If Bennett becomes Prime Minister someday—and his ambition is as plump and glaring as a harvest moon—he intends to annex most of the West Bank and let Arab cities like Ramallah, Nablus, and Jenin be “self-governing” but “under Israeli security.”

“I will do everything in my power to make sure they never get a state,” he says of the Palestinians. No more negotiations, “no more illusions.” Let them eat crème brûlée.

Onstage, he waited as a nervous host flambéed the introduction: “He loves a good run! His favorite ice cream is pistachio! And his favorite movie is ‘The Shawshank Redemption’! . . . Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Naftali Bennett!” Bennett acknowledged the applause and stepped to the lip of the stage. He is modest in height and wears a plain open-neck shirt and khakis. Like many Israeli men faced with the first sign of male-pattern baldness, he mows his hair close to the skull. He wears a small kippa—knitted, like those worn by religious Zionists and modern Orthodox, but not large and knitted, like those of more radical settlers among them.

He looked grave. The previous Friday, the Prime Minister, Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, had gone on three evening television shows to blast Bennett for having declared that he would refuse any order to expel Jews from a settlement. Not that Israel intends to dismantle settlements anytime soon—on the contrary, construction proceeds apace, “facts on the ground” accumulate—but this debating point touched on a crucial matter. Bennett talks about “reviving” Zionism through an infusion of “Jewish values,” including a sense of the sacredness of the land, but he is also a man of the military, and it would not do, as a soldier or as a candidate, to endorse a campaign of disobedience. Finally, Bennett recanted. And yet somehow he felt wronged.

“I’ve gone through a pretty crazy weekend,” Bennett told the crowd sheepishly. He reached into his pocket. He took out his iPhone and started to scroll. A banner flanking the stage read, “Something Fresh,” and this moment—a politician Googling for wisdom while the crowd waits patiently—was part of the freshness.

“I’d love to quote a wonderful sentence that has been guiding me for years,” he said. “It’s . . . Teddy Roosevelt . . . where . . . ah, yes!”

Bennett looked down at his palm and read from T.R.’s 1910 speech at the Sorbonne on “Citizenship in a Republic,” a chestnut reheated by generations of wounded, righteous politicians—including Richard Nixon on the day he left the White House in disgrace.

“It is not the critic who counts,” he began. A few Americans sitting near me nodded and smiled. “Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.”

Bennett looked up with an expression of satisfaction.

“That’s pretty amazing,” he said. “In other words, ‘Just do it.’ ”

Bennett made his pitch in the American style—autobiographically. He described how he had been compelled to enter the electoral arena after fighting in the Second Lebanon War, in 2006. “We failed,” he said. “Tzahal”—the Army—“failed. It was a draw at best.” Israel had done too little to take the war to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The command structure was confused and timid, the politicians were lacking in resolve. “There was a profound problem of spirit in the desire to win,” he said. “Every day at 2 or 3 p.m., I would call through the radio my commanders to suggest this or that and they would say, ‘No, no, wait until evening, we’ll talk then.’ But you don’t win wars by doing nothing.” This was a cartoonish description of the monthlong conflict, but it was a cartoon with political utility: Bennett, who was a member of Sayeret Matkal, the most prestigious outfit in the Israel Defense Forces, projects himself as modern and rational, but also as unimpeachably tough.

Naftali Bennett To Anglos: "Join the 'Jewish Spring'" What are the Bayit Hayehudi party ideals and plans, and to what does its leader, Naftali Bennett, attribute his meteoric rise?

Sheva spoke to Bayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) chairman, Naftali Bennett, in English so that readers can have the opportunity to read his answers in the original words in which they were spoken.

Bennett's English is unhesitant and fluent. He is just as eloquent in English as he is in the Hebrew speeches that continue to result in rousing applause – and constantly rising polls - all over Israel.  A former commander in the elite IDF commando unit Sayeret Matkal and a graduate of Haifa's Yavne Yeshiva High School, he is the son of American Jewish immigrants from San Francisco.

Q. What is your central message for Anglo voters?

Bennett: Our central goal is to restore proud Jewish identity to all Israelis. For too many years, too many people here have been ashamed to say that they lovethe Jewish people, its Torah and its land, the values that led Western immigrants to move to Israel.

These are very interesting elections. We all know who the next prime minister will be.The question is what kind of government  he will form, will it be left or right? Will it be a national Jewish Zionist coalition with us as a major party or will it be a leftist one? We have to be strong enough to make the decision to form a nationalistic coalition the only feasible one.

Q. What about those who say you are extremists?

Bennett: Quite the opposite. We are the real "centrists"– loving our heritage is centrist, loving the Land of Israel is centrist, loving the Jewish People is centrist – that is what most Israelis feel, but there were those who made them feel ashamed to say so out loud. We are getting them to speak up.

We are the real centrist party because Israel is more Jewish than it has ever been.

If you think it is insane to hand over land to our enemies, you are not extremist, you are centrist. If you want user-friendly religious services, housing that is affordable, you are not extremist, you are centrist. The once centrist parties have turned left. In fact, many of our views are similar to those of the Labor party in the seventies. It is they who have changed.

We have a fantastic list. Nine of our first group of candidates were in combat units, we have three experienced former MK's, our younger candidates are idealists with proven accomplishments, we have three  talented women, and another Anglo besides me. The Jewish Home has room for all Zionists.

Q. To what do you attribute your meteoric rise?

Bennett: It is not because of me, it is the natural outpouring of what Israelis feel in their hearts and needed an opportunity to be able to express. We are back to the basics and it is like a volcano erupting.

In fact, we are witnessing a "Jewish Spring" that is sweeping Israel, and that's why secular and religious Israelis are identifying with us and voting for us. People who believe the existence of the Jewish state is vital for Am Yisrael and love the state and the IDF are our supporters.. They might not wear a yarmulke, but perhaps they say Kiddush, light Shabbat candles, perhaps they put on tefillin.

They are looking for a Jewish home and we are that welcoming "Jewish Home" that makes them feel at home with their roots.

We are a vital bridge and I hope we meet the challenge.

It turns out that most Israelis have a strong Jewish identity, one that for many years may have been dormant – but it is there.

Q. What is your message to the different groups that make up Israeli society?

Bennett: We have to restore and strengthen basic values by tearing down the walls between various "tribes" in Israel and stop alienating one another – hareidi and secular and religious are one people.

Our primaries showed me that we must open up to everyone, secular, Sephardic, Ashkenazic, residents of the North and South.

Q. How do you propose to solve the hareidi issue?

Bennett: Hareidi Jews are our brothers, we are not going to go in for hareidi-bashing. Torah learning is a national interest of Israel.

However, there are many hareidi men that don't study all day, but don't serve in the army. They should join, should serve and work. The hareidim know that too, they don't want to stay locked in poverty. We need positive steps, not penalizing, not adding more dissension, but creating viable options that suit hareidi men, options such as battalions with special kashrut, new ideas such as making them firemen and ambulance drivers, suggestions that comply with their unique lifestyle.

This needs time and patience, not force. Forcing will curtail the progress that has already been made.

Q. Should we strengthen the Prime Minister's party?

Bennett: Anglos who are debating whether it is important to strengthen the ruling party, Likud, should look at its record for the past four years and see why the opposite is true and the Likud needs a strong partner. In the last four years, the Likud declared that it was for a Palestinian Arab state against its own platform, it froze construction, it stopped the Pillar of Defense Operation before a conclusive result was reached, it let anti-Zionist hareidim take over religious services and conversion, did not accept the Levi Report, all this despite all the religious and rightist MK's in the party.

Q. What are your educational goals?

Bennett: Too many young people don't know our heritage. When I was a commander, I wanted my soldiers to know my background and respect it. Current Education MinisterGideon Saar said we need non-religious ministers of education to succeed in including Jewish heritage in the curriculum so it won't seem sectarian – and I say, be proud and do what you think the Jewish people need.  We have to be proud of our people and stop the galut (exile) mentality, we also have to be proud if we are religious Zionists, Jews who value the Torah of Israel, the People of Israel and the Land of Israel.

Q. How do you see the Chief Rabbinate's role?

Bennett: The Chief Rabbinate should be able to spread the beauty of Judaism to the wider nation as it once did. It is a wonderful opportunity for the country to see that a great Talmid Chacham can make their intersections with Judaism positive experiences.

The charismatic leader of the revitalized Religious Zionist  Bayit Hayehudi party has a message for olim  in an English video below in which he says: "My parents are from California. They chose Zionism out of love for Israel. The Bayit Hayehudi is your home because it represents the values and ideals that led you to make Aliyah. It’s time to take the message of your Aliyah to the entire country."

The Hebrew reads: He'll give us an order you won't be able to refuse

Holocaust imagery-laden ad attacking right-wing candidate causes uproarLikud-Yisrael Beytenu condemns ad that says Naftali Bennett aspires to take national religious back to ‘the ghetto’

The ascendant head of the Jewish Home party, Naftali Bennett, continued to make political waves on Tuesday, aftersupporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Yisrael Beytenu list released an Internet ad featuring Holocaust-era imagery that implied that the national religious party aspires to take the country’s Orthodox citizens back to “the ghetto.”

The ad, which was strongly condemned by the Likud, was an attempt to persuade religious voters to vote Likud and influence policy from within the ruling party, rather than opt for for the sectarian Jewish Home and thus weaken Likud’s Knesset presence. It featured a grainy black-and-white picture of Bennett behind barbed wire next to the words “60 years!” and a modified Jewish Home logo that read “Jewish ghetto.”

The Jewish Home part announced it filed an official complaint to the police over the ad, and asked for an investigation to discover who was behind it.

“It took 60 years for the knitted skullcaps”  – a reference to religious Zionists — “to free themselves from the sectarian ghetto of the National Religious Party. Sixty years until we finally succeeded in becoming integrated into the Israeli public and freeing ourselves from the isolated ghetto in which our past leaders imprisoned us,” read the ad.

The National Religious Party, or NRP, was a previous incarnation of the Jewish Home party.

“And now,” the ad continues, “Naftali Bennett wants to return us to the National Religious Party of old, ‘the religious people’s party.’ Sorry, Naftali, we prefer to be part of the Israeli public and not to isolate ourselves. Knitted skullcaps have influence from inside. In the Likud, there are more religious and traditional Knesset members than in the Jewish Home party!”

The ad was posted to the Facebook page of a group calling itself the “Likud Supporters Street Campaign” on Tuesday morning, and on www.likudnik.co.il. The Likud supporters wrote that they were motivated by “a love of all Israel,” as opposed to Bennett, who “wants to take you back to 60 years ago with a narrow niche party vision.”

Moshe Ifergan, who created the ad, was placed in the 96th spot on the Likud’s Knesset list, the Walla news site reported. “I’m not sorry about the ad,” an unrepentant Ifergan said. ”There’s only one thing I didn’t notice — that the star [in the image] is yellow.”

Bennett, in response, posted the ad to his popular Facebook page, saying he “had no words” and asking, “My brothers in the Likud, what happened to you?” The post quickly drew over 1,000 comments condemning the ad, with many speculating that the furor could ultimately prove beneficial to the Jewish Home because it cast the Likud-Yisrael Beytenu list in a bad light.

The Likud-Beytenu released a statement to the effect that the party was “disgusted” by the “shocking” ad, which, it averred, was posted by a movement that had “no affiliation” with the Likud.

Likud-Beytenu also called on Bennett to file an official police complaint in order to discover the identities of those responsible, and said that the Central Elections Commission had already begun looking into ways to have the ad removed.

Last month, the Likud made its first head-on attack on Bennett, who has been seen as siphoning votes away from Netanyahu’s party, after the Jewish Home leader indicated that he would opt to conscientiously object rather than evacuate Jewish settlers from their homes.

Since then, the two parties have been at each other’s throats.

Last week, the Central Elections Commission ordered Likud-Beytenuand several major newspapers to pay compensation to the Jewish Home party for an advertisement attacking Bennett.

The ad, which was printed in Haaretz, Maariv and Israel Hayom, and also appeared online, featured an image of the Jewish Home chair with the words “Bennett is irresponsible; he supports insubordination,” along with a quote from the television interview in which Bennett made the controversial statement about insubordination: “Conscientious objection is an intrinsic part of being a soldier.”

The ad originally ran anonymously, but it was later confirmed that it was funded by Likud-Beytenu. The commission determined that the anonymous nature of the ad was a violation of election laws and ordered Likud-Beytenu, Haaretz, Maariv and Israel Hayom to each pay NIS 1,000 to the Jewish Home party.

How to solve the Israeli-Arab conflict - Naftali Bennett

“Let me be clear, the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews” Bayit HaYehudi leader Naftali Bennett told an audience at an election event in English.

Speaking about the Israeli PA (Palestinian Authority) conflict, the Knesset hopeful uses the following analogy, a person seated at a beach when a tsunami hits, and ignoring everything else surrounding the area. He feels that is what is done regarding the ongoing conflict between Israel and the PA. “Unfortunately, we are not in an isolated island where we can say Israel there and Palestinians there”.

He makes reference to Hamas’ official charter, which calls for killing the Jews. “My vision is and I will be very clear is one million Jews in Yehuda and Shomron in ten years”. He feels that the establishment of a Hamas state in those areas “is nuts”, just as annexing those areas to Israel as “nuts”.

Bennett speaks of his “imperfect practical solution” which calls for annexing Yehuda and Shomron to Israel while giving the PA residents citizenship and permitting them to vote. “They will feel like they won the lottery”. He feels the 2 million Arabs living in Yehuda and Shomron will stay just where they area while the others in Jordan and elsewhere.
“If it ain’t broken don’t fix it” Bennett states regarding Jerusalem. The Arabs can go onto the Temple Mount and we are there too” so he feels we should not be seeking a solution that hasn’t a chance of improving today’s current realities. He feels the rule is that if Israel leaves an area “Iran comes in” and this was seen in Gaza and S. Lebanon and the pullout from areas of Judea and Samaria has led to the deaths of 1,600 Israelis.
Bennett feels it is unrealistic to aspire to a vision of peace “with doves flying between Damascus and Israel.” He vehemently disagrees with former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that failure to achieve peace will make the end of Israel. He feels a Israel’s future depends of being a strong democratic nation “and that’s up to us. Yes, it is an imperfect solution but it solves demographics and security and keeps us in our land.”

CNN Debate Live: Naftali Bennett vs. Ed Husain

One day, this video may be called up like the Ehud Olmert v. Meir Kahanevideo or like the Netanyahu video from MIT in 1976 to show the brilliance of someone (then Kahane and Netanyahu) not yet in power.

Here's Judea and Samaria council leader Naftali Bennett debating 'Palestinian' spokesman and Council on Foreign Relations member Ed Husain on CNN.

Bennett served in the elite Sayeret Matkal and Maglan units as a Company Commander and continues to serve in the reserves, holding the rank of Major. (Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak also served in Sayeret Matkal). 

After his IDF service, Bennett received a Law degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1999, he co-founded "Cyota" – an anti-fraud software company and served as its CEO. The company was sold in 2005 to RSA Security for $145,000,000.

After he took part in the Second Lebanon War, Bennett joined the then-opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu and served as his Chief of Stafffrom 2006–2008. Among other issues, he led a team which developed Netanyahu's Educational reform plan. He also ran Netanyahu's primary campaign to lead the Likud party in August 2007.

On January 31, 2010, Bennett was appointed as the Director General of the Yesha Council and led the struggle against the Settlement freeze in 2010. He served in this position until January 2012.

In April of 2011 he co-founded MyIsrael with over 80,000 Israeli members.

In April of 2012 he founded a movement named "Yisraelim" - Israelis. The movement's main goals include, increasing zionism amongst center-right wing supporters; increasing dialogue between the religious and non-religious communities, and finally - promoting "The Bennett Plan". Subsequently, Bennet has resigned from the Likud and joined The Jewish Home party, while announcing his candidacy for the party leadership. At the internal elections, on November 6, 2012, he won about 67% of the votes, and was elected as head of "the Jewish Home".

Bennett lives in Raanana with his wife and three children. (Raanana is not in Judea or Samaria).

(Biographical details about Bennett from here).