Bennett: ‘Because of the government’s criminal negligence, 9 million people are on lockdown’

In a week marked by dramatic events on the diplomatic front, Yamina leader Naftali Bennett speaks to Israel Hayom about why the country needs a different kind of leadership, and why he would choose sovereignty in Judea and Samaria over peace deals with Gulf states.

By  Jacob Bardugo, ISRAEL HAYOM

Yamina leader and former Defense Minister Naftali Bennett: “We’re all in the same boat” | Photo: Eric Sultan

While the Right and Left in Israel are at loggerheads on nearly every issue, there appears to be the start of a consensus about one thing: that Yamina leader Naftali Bennett could become the next prime minister.

The successful handling of the first wave of coronavirus in Israel, when Bennett was defense minister, and the disappointment at the government’s functioning during the second wave have caused Bennett’s stock as an enthusiastic opposition leader to rise, along with the number of seats polls are projecting for his party.

Israel Hayom asks him how he can explain his comeback from April 2019, when his and Ayelet Shaked’s New Right party failed to make it past the minimum electoral threshold of 3.25%, to the 20 seats polls this month are predicting for Yamina.

Bennett replies: “I wasn’t depressed when we didn’t make it past the minimum threshold, and I’m not dancing around when we do well in the polls. I think the public is longing for leadership that will get up in the morning, act professionally, seriously, and focus first and foremost on containing COVID and rehabilitating the economy, so they’re coming [to us].

“The public is saying, put the usual fighting between Right and Left aside for a while, and wok on getting us out of the emergency situation. Bring the people together,” he says.

Q: You’re responsible for the 2019 ‘adventure’ that led Israel into three elections and ended the right-wing government we knew.

“There are ideas that take a while to develop, and the time is ripe for a new party and movement. What is it saying? That a true Right isn’t characterized by hatred for the Left, but by what it promotes … Yamina is developing. It has stopped being a niche party and is appealing to the entire national camp in Israel – secular, religious, Haredim. It has a wing that will focus on religious [voters], but it has stopped being a sectorial party. Yes, the face of Yamina is changing.”

Q: Will it be Likud II?

“I think that Likud I of today is a lot of ministers who are busy shouting, who don’t earn a lot of respect. This [Yamina] is a national, Jewish, right-wing party.”

Q: Will your political partner Ayelet Shaked be given seniority?

“We have a lot of mutual appreciation for each other, we’ve worked together for 14 years. In the end, our drive is ideological, and that ideology is to give to Israel. I see a list with a lot of good people, like Ayelet and many others, who are here to work.”

Q: But under your leadership.

“Absolutely.”

Q: Will MK Bezalel Smotrich be part of the party?

“He is a partner. He was a great transportation minister and is really ready. But there will be broad diversity. We’ll create a movement that says that the time has come for a different leadership.”

Q: Could Yamina form an alliance with Yesh Atid or Meretz against the Likud?

“There won’t be an alliance of that type, and I won’t form a government with Arab votes, or based on the Arab parties abstaining, ever. … What we need to do this time is rather than boycotting, start connecting. And marking goals. The goal will be triple: to get a handle on COVID, to rebuild the economy, and to unite the people.”

‘It took Begin time, too’

Bennett’s first step was to “re-brand” the veteran National Religious Party under the name Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home), and with Shaked at his side, to reach out to the secular Right. They had limited success, especially in the social periphery.

Q: Do you think that next time, you’ll be able to connect to the electoral mass that put Menachem Begin and Benjamin Netanyahu into power?

“I don’t see myself as representing any one sector. If I’m defense minister, I’m the defense minister for the entire public in Israel, Jews and Arabs alike. My parents, who made aliyah from the US, didn’t know that was a thing, Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews. They raised us color-blind, and I’m very happy they did.”

Q: There aren’t ethnic divisions in Israel? The “second Israel” doesn’t exist?

“Of course there are, but we need to attempt to look forward and build the future. Know the past, but not dig down into it. Not cling to ethnic divisions. It’s an outdated discourse, and the truth is that when a other lights candles in Beersheba, she connects to generations of Judaism. She and I are equally moved by the Israeli flag and by lighting candle and by the Kiddush and by Slichot.”

Q: And in the end, she votes Likud.

“Listen, Menachem Begin lost elections for 29 years before he became prime minister.”

Q: People call you religious ‘lite.” What does that mean?

“The Judaism I connect to is the Sephardic approach, in the sense that unlike Ashekenazi Judaism, in which you’re defined as completely secular, or Haredi, in north Africa and Arab countries there was no separation like that. Rabbis opened the door to everyone. A lot of people say Kiddush and then watch soccer. They’re not any less Jewish. I don’t want to change the religion, or Jewish law. I’m in favor of moderate, non-judgmental Judaism, live and let live, and on the other hand, as a public leader, I see parents longing for their children to get some roots and tradition.”

Q: Why aren’t you declaring yourself a candidate for prime minister?

“All in good time. I’m not obsessed with the role, but rather with making a fundamental change to the situation of this country. My goal is to show the public that there is another way, and that way is a government that understands that for the next few years, it has to put nearly everything to the side.”

Q: Are you an iPhone 12 and Netanyahu an iPHone 11?

“Maybe I’m an iPhone 12 and Netanyahu’s a Nokia. The current leadership is tired; Netanyahu made a great contribution to Israel over the years, for decades. But there is weariness, a lack of focus, the government is failing to lead. This is the biggest failure in Israel’s history.”

Q: So you see yourself as an alternative to the Netanyahu government.

“I think the public can look at my short term as defense minister and understand what kind of leadership I represent. During the [first wave] of COVID, I set up a bed next to my office. I worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Including Shabbat. Around the clock. To rescue the country from the disaster. We set up COVID hotel facilities and brought in [genetics testing company] My Heritage, over the objection of government functionaries and the health minister.”

“Netanyahu isn’t focused on COVID. Absolutely not. He is busy with a lot of other things. Right now, the prime minister should be the ‘corona coordinator.'”

The 20 seats polls are predicting for Yamina are due in a large part to Bennett’s activity as defense minister. He became “Mr. COVID,” and rushed to anchor that image in a new book, How to Defeat a Plague.

He says the book “is a work plan for Israel not only when it comes to the virus, but also about how to move the country forward.”

Q: No one knows anything about COVID. It’s rocking the entire world. Europe is closing again.

“I take issue with what you’re saying. The countries that manage it properly are able to contain it, and I offer Georgia, Rwanda, and the states of Massachusetts and New York as examples. There is no country in the world that lost control the way we did.”

Naftali Bennett and Yamina co-leader Ayelet Shaked (Dudu Grunshpan)

Q: In your book, you talk about a hammer vs. pincers. A hammer is a lockdown, pincers means cutting off outbreaks. The government has opted for a hammer. Would you do it differently?

“In the first wave, we used a hammer. What is the purpose of a hammer? To buy precious time, because people are at home with emotional problems, difficulty earning a living, and in that time you need to set up a system to cut off outbreaks and get to a stage at which testing is available for whoever needs it. Instead of that, in the most critical period of May-June, the government was busy with whether there would or would not be a fourth election.”

Q: Why didn’t you approve a system of contact tracing?

“In general, the Defense Ministry wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with it. In March, I asked the prime minister to give me the authority to do just that. I asked again and again, and again and again Prime Minister Netanyahu refused. Even though he refused, I took responsibility for testing, and against the position of the health minister and against what the associates of the prime minister wanted, I brought in My Heritage. Then I went and set up the hotels, which also wasn’t within the scope of my authority. I took charge of caring for 300,000 elderly, of handling Bnei Brak and Dir al-Assad.

“In the time we bought, the government was busy with elections, with internal fighting, and didn’t do a thing about COVID. It didn’t increase testing and we were left with 27 nurses doing tests rather than 3,000. It’s criminal negligence by the government, and because of that criminal negligence, 9 million people are now under lockdown, not spending the holiday with Grandma and Grandpa, losing their livelihoods. It’s the government’s fault. And when I see the prime minister patting himself on the back and congratulating himself for making good decisions, that’s the root of the public’s lack of trust in the government.”

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Q: Should protests be allowed during the lockdown?

“The right to protest is an important one, but not an absolute one. There is a right more important, and that’s the right to life. So my rule is, protests and prayers should be subject to the same regulations. If I see the government regulating prayer, putting people in small groups, then demonstrations should be very clearly regulated. Because the moment there are uncontrolled protests on Balfour St., it provides an excuse for people to go to Uman.”

Q: In times like these, do you support tough police enforcement against people who break the rules?

“Yes. I urge the public – the fact that someone else is breaking the rules, shouldn’t prompt you to say, ‘Fine, I’ll go to an illegal wedding.’ We’re in the same boat – Jews, Arabs, religious, secular, Haredim. You see someone else drilling a hole in the boat, so what, as a punishment, you make another one? In the end, we’ll drown.”

‘Sovereignty over regional peace deals’

Bennett sits down with Israel Hayom during a particularly dramatic week in terms of diplomacy. When Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump rolled out the Trump administration peace plan at the White House, Bennett, a former director general of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) called for Israeli to apply sovereignty to all settlements immediately, even before the election. Now it seems as if even partial Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley has been postponed for the sake of the peace deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Q: You have said in the past that you’re in favor of ‘right-wing peace.’ Did you mean what Netanyahu is doing now?

“First of all, I welcome these agreements. I would have liked to see the details first. If there weren’t concessions here and there it would be great, but maybe there were. It was reported, and I haven’t heard any denial, that we will forgo some sovereignty in the next few years.”

Q: If there is such a concession, would you vote against a peace agreement?

“If you’re asking me if I’d vote for sovereignty in the Land of Israel or peace with Bahrain, then sovereignty. Because that is for generations to come. Deals come and go. Establishing borders for our country is an opportunity for the next 100 years. The current borders were established at San Remo, and then we gave up parts of the land, never to get them back. When you draw your border in the Jordan Valley, like the prime minister promised to do and made it his campaign platform, it was dramatic. And if he gave up on that, I think it’s a mistake. Neither the UAE nor Bahrain are making peace with us because we conceded sovereignty. They are making peace with us because of American pressure and their own interests.

“They’re under pressure from Iran. They see Israel as an economic power, although it was very badly hurt during COVID.”

Q: Do we put too much importance on the settlements?

“I don’t see the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria as a sectorial issue that is only of interest to settlers, but something that benefits the entire people. Beit El and Hebron don’t belong to settlers, they belong to you and me and all of the Israeli people. When the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are buried in Hebron, they are the fathers of people who live in Netivot and in Tel Aviv. In terms of security, too, the half-million settlers in Judea and Samaria protect us here in Tel Aviv.”

Q: In your book you criticize government functionaries. You call for wide-ranging reforms, and to cut top officials’ salaries by 20%.

“Absolutely. I think it’s a criminal lack of solidarity that until now, government ministers haven’t cut their salaries by 20%. They didn’t allow me to [cut my salary], so every month since March I’ve put aside 20% of my salary [to donate to] families in need. But it shouldn’t be voluntary, it should be a cabinet decision, and through legislation if necessary.”

Q: Not only ministers.

“Nothing will happen if a person who gets a pension of 50,000 shekels ($14,600) is cut to 40,000, and the other 10,000 go to help the self-employed who are collapsing. We’re in a crisis, but the truth is, some of the public is making it though comfortably, because their salary is deposited every month.”

Q: But you also say that extending unemployment benefits until June 2021 is ‘foolish.’

“Let’s say you have Yossi, a 26-year-old guy who has worked as a waiter for five months, and now he’s furloughed and on unemployment until June. It’s nice to have money, and everything’s all right. But Yossi doesn’t understand that June will arrive, and he still won’t be working. I’d take the same money and train Yossi, using a voucher system. Let him spend five months learning digital design, on the state’s dime, and then he’ll be able to find work. I believe not in keeping people at home, but in making sure they can have a decent livelihood.”

“My goal is to free the young generation. I met with young people in their mid-20s, and the picture I got was one in which they don’t see a future. They’re saying, you, the previous generation, have shackled us to debts we’ll have to pay.”

Q: The entire world is in debt.

“It’s okay to take money from the future, if it’s to build the future. But I want to see the money going toward infrastructure, good public transportation, to bringing the public on board with activities.”

Reform

Q: Will you be a reformer?

“Yes, I will. Civil service needs to be reformed. There are a lot of good people there, but it’s not always the good people who are promoted based on proven abilities. A lot of the time, it’s because of other things.”

Q: Are cases ‘cooked up’?

“When it comes to Prime Minister Netanyahu, there was too much enthusiasm. From the start, law enforcement was too invested. I don’t know if there’s anything there or not, that will be made clear in court.”

‘I left things quiet on the security front’

Q: You were defense minister for six months. What did you accomplish?

“First of all, that is really a job that requires you for 24 hours a day. You walk around carrying the ‘red phone,’ you don’t have day or night. But the goals I set for myself included chasing down terrorist activity, through economic means, too, so I froze for the first time payments to Israeli families of terrorists, and issued instructions not to release the bodies of any terrorists we hold. We demolished terrorists’ homes quickly, and I issued an administrative order to stop payments to terrorists. It worked. Terrorists’ families went nuts and exerted pressure on the PA, which pressed me to cancel the order. I refused. Unfortunately, when [Benny] Gantz took over, one of the first things he did was to cancel that order.

“The second thing was to work to stop Iran in Syria and put Iran under pressure in Syria. The third thing was settlements. I approved construction of the first new neighborhood in 22 years in the City of the Patriarchs [Hebron].”

Q: What about the Gaza Strip?

“I was given a Gaza border plagued by rocket fire, arson balloons, riots at the border fence every Friday, I left complete quiet for my successor. On Tuesday night, I went down to Ashdod to meet with residents of the neighborhood where the rocket landed. Unfortunately, they’ve been allowed to get used to that being their fate. It’s not. We can create a different reality. Not in 48 hours, but by transition from a passive outlook and defense to taking the initiative and creativity. Six months as defense minister is a very short time. The responsibility of sending soldiers on dangerous missions is something that teaches you a lot, and here I have to compliment the prime minister – there was never a single time when he stopped one of my decisions.”

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