Yosef Haddad, an Arab candidate running with Ofer Winter\u2019s party<\/a>, is also a Zionist.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is not based on race,\u201d he stressed. \u201cBut we are a Zionist country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett did not say explicitly that he would refuse to sit with the haredi parties. He did, however, set criteria that would make their participation all but impossible.<\/p>\n
He said the next government must be Zionist and institute national service for all. Anyone who dodges service, he added, should receive \u201cnot one shekel\u201d from the state.<\/p>\n
BENNETT\u2019S PARTY offices occupy the seventh and eighth floors of a glass high-rise in Ra\u2019anana, the city where he lives. A calendar counting down the days to the election greets visitors.<\/p>\n
If the campaign is taking a toll on him, it doesn\u2019t show. Bennett, in his ubiquitous black T-shirt, was full of energy.<\/p>\n
His advisers made sure that a new book by Ari Shavit, titled Bennett, sat prominently on the table in front of him. Its cover shows Bennett, eyes closed, hugging a soldier.<\/p>\n
Hugs appear in many of the clips he posts and seem almost a campaign theme, projecting an empathy that \u2013 when one meets him \u2013 feels genuine.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal and the reason I\u2019m coming back to politics is to repair Israel. Israel went through a horrible trauma on October 7, the worst trauma. We failed in our most fundamental goal, which is to protect Jews. We failed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett repeatedly used the words \u201cfix\u201d and \u201crepair\u201d during the interview. The most urgent repair, he said, is to bring haredim into the army and integrate them more fully into the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things we\u2019ve got to do. There\u2019s one that will save Israel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That one thing is bringing Israel\u2019s 1.5 million haredim into the military and the workforce, turning them into taxpayers rather than having the state subsidize them, and ensuring that their schools teach math and English alongside Torah and Gemara.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the single most important thing for Israel\u2019s long-term future because of demography. Right now, every year, we are carrying more tax burden, more weight, and more military service on our shoulders, and something\u2019s got to give. Now\u2019s the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several parties \u2013 from Ofer Winter\u2019s new People of Israel party to Gadi Eisenkot\u2019s Yashar and Avigdor Liberman\u2019s Yisrael Beytenu \u2013 have made this a central campaign issue.<\/p>\n
Asked what distinguishes his policy from those of Eisenkot and Liberman, Bennett said Eisenkot favors military exemptions for 30% of haredim, while Liberman wants to arrest draft dodgers. Bennett rejects both approaches. His answer is to cut off state funding.<\/p>\n
Or, as the man he hopes to succeed might once have put it: You serve, you get. You don\u2019t serve, you don\u2019t get anything. Not a shekel.<\/p>\n
Bennett said his policy would operate in three areas: military service, employment and taxation, and education.<\/p>\n
In the military sphere, Bennett proposes establishing haredi hesder yeshivot along Israel\u2019s borders with Jordan and Egypt, where participants would divide their days among Torah study, guard duty and patrols, and sleep.<\/p>\n
The all-male frameworks, he said, would significantly reduce the burden on reservists, since one soldier in the regular army is the equivalent of 12 reservists serving one month a year.<\/p>\n
He also wants to provide haredim with vocational training that will enable them to work.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, however, he wants to carry out sweeping reforms in the haredi educational system, something he said he has changed his mind on, since in the past he did not want to get involved in the haredi \u201cvalue system.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I will get involved because when you teach your kids to be anti-Zionist, anti-IDF, anti-going-to-work from the age of three to the age of 18, then at the age of 18, they go out and demonstrate, saying they will rather die than serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wants to set up state haredi schools that will teach a 60% core curriculum, including English, math, Hebrew, Bible, and Zionism, and another 40% that will concentrate, at least for boys, on Talmud. Once these schools are set up, he added, \u201cI\u2019m going to stop funding a school that teaches anti-Zionism and doesn\u2019t teach math and English.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cbig insight,\u201d Bennett said, is that the country \u201ccannot kick the can down the road forever\u201d on this issue.<\/p>\n
The term \u201cconceptzia\u201d applies not only to entrenched thinking on security matters, but also to these types of issues, he said, adding that Israel has operated under the mistaken assumption that it could preserve the status quo with the haredim indefinitely. That may have been sustainable when they constituted 3% of the population, but not when their numbers are approaching 15%.<\/p>\n
\u201cThirty percent of Jewish kids in first grade are haredi. So it\u2019s now or never,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bennett opposes granting draft exemptions to 30% of haredim, as Eisenkot has suggested, because that raises the question of who would decide who receives them. He also opposes arrests of draft dodgers, arguing that this merely turns those jailed into heroes.<\/p>\n
Nor does he favor continuing the dialogue on this issue with the haredi parties that, he said, has led nowhere for years.<\/p>\n
Instead, he wants to turn off the financial spigot. Economic incentives work, he stressed.<\/p>\n
The differences between Bennett’s approach to Gaza and Netanyahu’s approach\u00a0<\/p>\n
IF HAREDI integration is one major issue hovering over the campaign, October 7 is another. Bennett highlighted \u2013 in the interview, as he does in his informal \u201cparliaments\u201d \u2013 the differences between his approach toward Gaza and Netanyahu\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Bennett described his policies toward Gaza as \u201cdiametrically opposite\u201d to Netanyahu\u2019s. Netanyahu, he said, pursued a policy of containment, tolerating rockets, incendiary balloons, and disturbances along the border fence, while Bennett adopted a \u201czero tolerance policy\u201d: \u201cNot one balloon, not one terror kite or rocket.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also criticized Netanyahu\u2019s decision to permit the monthly transfer of $30 million in Qatari cash to Hamas. Bennett ended this policy when he became PM in June 2021 and replaced the cash transfers with prepaid cards for Gazan families that Israel could track. But he acknowledged that he neither solved the problem nor foresaw what was coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI inherited a really bad situation and improved it. But I didn\u2019t solve it,\u201d he said. \u201cI admit I didn\u2019t imagine the October 7 scenario in Gaza. I did imagine the October 7 scenario from Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike some of the other candidates in the race, Bennett does not drip with contempt for Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not a hater of Bibi. I never was,\u201d he said. \u201cIn fact, in the past, I very much admired him. I think he entered politics for the right reason. His heart was in the right place. I think 30 years is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nor does Bennett want to see Netanyahu jailed. \u201cI think he should go home. He should be pardoned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett also agrees that it is an exaggeration to blame Netanyahu entirely for Israel\u2019s deteriorating standing in American public opinion. He attributed half the problem to deep progressive, anti-Israel, and antisemitic currents that have taken hold all over the world.<\/p>\n
The other half, he said, is of Israel\u2019s own making, citing Ben-Gvir\u2019s selfies with bound prisoners, Zvi Sukkot taking a sledgehammer to a monument in a Palestinian city, and ministers saying that Gaza should be nuked.<\/p>\n
Fifty percent is self-inflicted, he said, adding this advice: \u201cStop doing stupid things. That would be a pretty interesting policy. Don\u2019t be an idiot. A non-idiotic government would be a good step.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/images.jpost.com\/image\/upload\/f_auto,fl_lossy\/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822\/735858\"\/)
The Jerusalem Post political correspondent Keshet Neev and political analyst Herb Keinon with former prime minister Naftali Bennett at the B’Yachad party headquarters, August 30, 2026. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)Bennett says he is optimistic about Israeli youth<\/p>\n
DESPITE ALL this, Bennett said he is optimistic about the country\u2019s future because of the way its young people have risen to the occasion since October 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m optimistic about Israel\u2019s future because there\u2019s a simple formula. I call it the Bennett formula. Israel\u2019s the only Western country in the world that\u2019s having kids \u2013 that\u2019s positive. And the kids we have, I look at this younger generation, and I believe it\u2019s Israel\u2019s finest generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
His use of the term \u201cfinest generation\u201d was deliberate, drawing a parallel to America\u2019s Greatest Generation \u2013 the generation that fought and lived through World War II.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter October 7, what they\u2019ve gone through and what they\u2019ve done on October 7 and thereafter, it\u2019s sort of embedded them with idealism and a drive to fix Israel, similar to post-World War II veterans who came home from America. They built America, right? 1945 to the 90s, the finest generation. This is our finest generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo here\u2019s the formula. Lots of kids times great kids equals a great future. All we need to do is change the leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that he hopes to do in over the next two months, one street-corner \u201cparliament\u201d at a time \u2013 Jimmy Carter-style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“My name is Jimmy Carter, and I\u2019m running for president of the United States.\u201d That was how Carter,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[29674,67830,11285,1607,37,30318,4028,4029,81,6489],"class_list":["post-277759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2026-israeli-elections","tag-byachad","tag-haredi-draft","tag-interview","tag-israel","tag-israel-elections-2026","tag-knesset","tag-naftali-bennett","tag-politics","tag-yair-lapid"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117211768387630572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}