{"id":235322,"date":"2021-06-03T07:51:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T07:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=235322"},"modified":"2021-06-04T08:14:24","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T08:14:24","slug":"naftali-bennett-israels-far-right-prime-minister-in-waiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=235322","title":{"rendered":"Naftali Bennett: Israel\u2019s far-right prime minister in waiting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oliver Holmes \u2013 The Guardian June 3, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Naftali Bennett does not believe in a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. His aim instead is to \u201cmanage\u201d it in perpetuity and always from a position of ultimate Israeli control over Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The hardline religious nationalist, once the head of a prominent Jewish settler group and now expected to become Israel\u2019s next prime minister<\/a>, is open about his plans for millions living under occupation.<\/p>\n

A video posted on his official YouTube page presents a colourfully animated account of the far-right politician\u2019s plan, with a lighthearted tone that belies its deeply serious message.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some things that we all know will never happen,\u201d says a narrator in a carefree voice. \u201cThe Sopranos will never return for another season \u2026 And a peace agreement with the Palestinians will not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

It goes on to detail Bennett\u2019s vision. First is the annexation of most of the occupied West Bank, which it argues is essential not only for security reasons \u2013 allowing hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers to remain there \u2013 but also because Israel wants control over its water resources.<\/p>\n

The proposal, based on a seven-point plan<\/a> Bennett released in 2012, would squeeze most West Bank Palestinians into urban enclaves with limited control over their lives. A few tens of thousands would be granted Israeli citizenship, to \u201ccounter any claims of apartheid\u201d, the document states.<\/p>\n

People in the geographically separate West Bank and Gaza Strip would not be allowed a \u201cconnection\u201d to each other, for fear of bringing \u201cthe violence, instability and problems\u201d of Hamas-run Gaza into the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Finally, the proposal makes clear that Palestinians would never be able to create a state in the West Bank, over which Israel would maintain \u201ccomplete security control\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some critics of Israel inside and outside the country argue the current reality in the occupied territories looks a lot like Bennett\u2019s plan<\/a>, as does a now-abandoned proposal drawn up by the Trump<\/a> administration.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Netanyahu \u2013 still prime minister, for now \u2013 has also said he intends to annex large parts of the West Bank in the future. Bennett was once Netanyahu\u2019s chief of staff and a member of his Likud party, and headed the education and defence ministries in his cabinets. Menachem Klein, a senior lecturer in political science at Bar-Ilan University, refers to Bennett as \u201cNetanyahu compatible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Still, while Netanyahu would temper his nationalist ambitions when speaking in English to an international audience still focused on a two-state solution, Bennett\u2019s unabashed pro-settler, biblically inspired zeal would bring the country into a new era.<\/p>\n

The 49-year-old is infamous for incendiary comments about the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

He said in 2013 that Palestinian \u201cterrorists should be killed, not released\u201d, and in 2018 \u2013 the same year Palestinians rallies at the Gaza frontier were met with lethal force<\/a> \u2013 Bennett said<\/a> Israeli troops should have a \u201cshoot to kill\u201d policy, including for minors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not allow terrorists to cross the border from Gaza every day,\u201d he said. Asked about the army targeting children, he replied: \u201cThey are not children. They are terrorists. We are fooling ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

As education minister, Bennett supported a law<\/a> used to ban groups critical of the armed forces or the state from entering schools and speaking to students. \u201cAnyone who wanders around the world attacking soldiers will not enter a school,\u201d Bennett said when the bill passed.<\/p>\n

His rhetoric and firing up of his hardline base have, however, at times come back to haunt him.<\/p>\n

To become prime minister in waiting, he has made a deal with the head of the opposition, Yair Lapid, who Bennett has long derided for his ostensible support for a two-state solution. Lapid is ideologically at odds with Bennett and his Yamina party, but needed his seats for a majority, and the two have described each other as friends in recent days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe left is making far from easy compromises here, when it bestows upon me … the role of prime minister,\u201d Bennett said in a speech late on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The deal has infuriated rightwing voters who see Bennett as going back on his principles to ally with a man they thought he detested. People have protested against the deal outside Bennett\u2019s family home in Ra\u2019anana, an affluent town north of Tel Aviv, where he lives with his secular wife, a former pastry chef, and their four children. His security detail has had to be upgraded.<\/p>\n

The son of immigrants from San Francisco, Bennett was in an elite Israeli military unit before becoming a hi-tech millionaire by selling an anti-fraud software company to a US security firm for $145m (\u00a3102m) in 2005.<\/p>\n

On some issues, the former commando is less conservative than his colleague on the hard right, including LGBTQ+ rights and the relationship between religion and state. He is pro-free market and pledged to break up \u201cbig unions\u201d.<\/p>\n

His main ambition, however, relates to Israel\u2019s control of the entire land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. Under the deal with Lapid, it is expected that no big decisions will be made on the issue of the occupation, as it could cause the delicate ideologically diverse coalition from breaking apart.<\/p>\n

Still, after decades of promoting settlement expansion and a permanent grip over Palestinian land, Bennett is not expected to sit idly if he makes it to high office.<\/p>\n

Sami Abu Shehadeh, a parliamentarian from Israel\u2019s Arab minority, said this week it was \u201cunthinkable\u201d that he would support such a Bennett-led government just to get Netanyahu out, as other anti-occupation politicians had done.<\/p>\n

A Bennett administration, he said, is \u201clight years away from democratic change\u201d and \u201csupports the settlements and the continuation of the siege on Gaza, and sanctifies the institutionalised mechanisms that perpetuate Jewish superiority and the marginalisation of the Palestinian citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe absolutely oppose Prime Minister Netanyahu and view him as being dangerous for the entire region, but a fundamental change needs to be made in policy, not just personnel changes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Guardian<\/a> in 2017, Bennett said there would not be a Palestinian state on his watch. \u201cIt\u2019s just not going to happen. A Palestinian state would be a disaster for the next 200 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under his seven-point plan, there never will. That idea has much more humble aspirations for the Palestinians than self-determination, such as investment in joint industrial zones \u2013 many of which are currently run by settlers and staffed by Palestinians \u2013 and the upgrading of roads and intersections. \u201cWe don\u2019t like long traffic jams, and understandably neither do they,\u201d the plan states.<\/p>\n

Bennett\u2019s vision has a different target audience than the fate it puts on Palestinians. At the end of his YouTube video<\/a>, casual drums and guitar music plays as the closing message is displayed: \u201cDoing what is good for Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former leader of Jewish settler group is infamous for making incendiary comments about Palestinians. Will he be an improvement on Netanyahu? Or could he make things worse? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":235324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=235322"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235327,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235322\/revisions\/235327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/235324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=235322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=235322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=235322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}