Israel’s ultra-nationalist leader Naftali Bennett is poised to become the country's next prime minister after parliament votes for a replacement government on Sunday, ending Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year hold on power. The new coalition consists of eight parties from across Israel’s political spectrum, including alittle Arab party, which makes it extremely fragile. The disparate opposition parties have close , mainly, to stay Netanyahu out of the office and avoid another election.
Naftali Bennett, 49, has served as minister of defence also as of education and therefore the economy in various governments under the leadership of Netanyahu. Born within the Israeli city of Haifa to immigrants from San Francisco , California, Bennett stormed into national politics in 2013 after renouncing his US citizenship.
The far-right Yamina party leader may be a religious ultranationalist who supports the expansion of Jewish settlements within the West Bank and therefore the annexation of most of the occupied region. Bennett made the annexation of parts of the West Bank that Israel captured during a 1967 war a serious feature of his platform . he's against a two-state solution and argues that a Palestinian state would be suicide for Israel thanks to security reasons.
Last year, as Netanyahu pushed the West Bank annexation plan and settlement building during the ultimate months of the Trump administration, Bennett, then defence chief, said, "The building momentum within the country must not be stopped, even for a second." The plan was eventually scrapped as Israel moved to normalise ties with the UAE under Abraham Accords.
Following through on expansion will now be politically unfeasible since the so-called “change” coalition, which relies on the support of the United Arab List, alittle party with Islamist roots, would collapse albeit one party bolts.
Bennett, also a self-made tech millionaire, formed a start-up in 1999 then moved to ny , eventually selling his anti-fraud software company, Cyota, to US security firm RSA for $145 million in 2005. He studied law at Jerusalem's Hebrew University.
