30 | JUNE 10 • 2021 

ERETZ

Editor’s Note: As of press time, no announce-
ment of a new Israeli prime minister has 
been made official, although a vote to elect 
Naftali Bennett must be taken by June 14.
B

enjamin Netanyahu may likely no 
longer be prime minister of Israel. 
So who will be the next person to 
lead the Jewish state? The answer will likely 
be Naftali Bennett, a former Netanyahu 
ally who supports many of his right-wing 
policies and is a longtime, staunch advo-
cate for Israel’s West Bank settlements. 
Like Netanyahu, he opposes Palestinian 
statehood, and at times he has been to 
Netanyahu’s right.
Bennett, 49, would break some bound-
aries. He would be Israel’s first Orthodox 
Jewish prime minister and the country’s 
first leader born of American parents. He 
would also be the first prime minister to 
have become rich in the tech sector. 
Bennett is slated to become prime minis-
ter under an emerging, fragile coalition deal 
that has seen Israeli parties team up across 

the political spectrum with the sole aim of 
ousting Netanyahu, who has been prime 
minister for 12 years. Under his deal with 
centrist Yair Lapid, Bennett would serve as 
PM for two-plus years, then Lapid would 
rotate into the role. He would also become 
prime minister as the head of an historically 
small party. In Israel’s most recent election, 
Bennett’s party won only seven of the Israeli 
parliament’s 120 seats. 
Of course, the whole thing could fall 
apart: The parties, which span from left to 
right, Jewish to Arab, have no shared vision 
for the 73-year-old nation. 
Here’s what you need to know about the 
likely next prime minister, from his past 
in the United States to his vision for West 
Bank annexation in the future, before he 
(potentially) takes office. 

AMERICAN-ISRAELI BACKGROUND
Bennett was born in Haifa to American 
immigrants from San Francisco and lived in 
the United States and Canada for a time as 
a child before the family returned perma-

nently to Israel. Like Netanyahu, he speaks 
fluent English with barely any accent.
Bennett recalls that he became Orthodox 
as a child, after attending a Chabad pre-
school while his family lived for a time 
in Montreal. As an adult, he is Modern 
Orthodox and wears a kippah — if he 
becomes prime minister, he would be the 
first to do so regularly. He lives in Raanana, 
a suburb of Tel Aviv. 
After serving in the Israel Defense Forces, 
Bennett earned a law degree and entered 
the tech industry, moving to New York City. 
He co-founded a successful fraud detection 
software company, Cyota, and sold it in 
2005 for $145 million.
Back in Israel, after leaving the tech 
world, Bennett got involved in right-
wing politics. He quickly rose to become 
Netanyahu’s chief of staff, from 2006-2008, 
when Netanyahu was the leader of the 
opposition in the Knesset. He left the role 
— reportedly in a spat with Netanyahu 
— and became the director of the Yesha 
Council, the umbrella organization repre-
senting Israeli settlements. 
In 2012, he won the primaries of Jewish 
Home, a right-wing, religious Zionist party. 
In Knesset elections the following year, 
Jewish Home quadrupled the size of its 
delegation, winning 12 seats in the 120-
seat Knesset, and Bennett became Israel’s 
economy minister in a government led by 

Naftali 
Bennett,

Israel’s (likely) Next 
Prime Minister?

Naftali 

Who is

GABE FRIEDMAN JTA

Naftali Bennett gives 
a press conference at 
the Knesset, the Israeli 
parliament in Jerusalem, 
April 21, 2021.

YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90

