Bennett recalls Netanyahu threatening him in coalition talks. In Syria, Israel has ‘significantly increased activity,’ and on Iran, ‘I’m not looking for a quarrel with the Americans for the sake of a quarrel’
A day after the interview with Naftali Bennett, the mountaintops were covered in white but the depths of the pandemic filled yet again with bad blood and wrestling in the mud. Teachers’ Union head Yaffa Ben David against the cabinet, top public health official Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis against cancellation of the quarantines, Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton against everyone. Israeli parents went to bed yet again in despair, confused and uncertain about what the morning would bring.
From Bennett’s perspective, this is another bump in the road, but the road ahead itself is clear: life with the coronavirus, not under the coronavirus. He waves off the criticism and low grades he is getting from the Israeli public. “Currently the State of Israel is managing the coronavirus, in my opinion, better than anywhere else. In a balanced way. We aren’t getting addicted to hopes that everything is okay, and at the same time we aren’t doing lockdowns the way we’ve seen now in Holland, or here under the previous government.
“Instead of the hammer of a lockdown, we are working with tweezers. We are pulling out the people who have tested positive and isolating them. When I took up the position it wasn’t possible to buy an antigen test in Israel legally. At first, a test cost 60 shekels (almost $20). Now it’s eight shekels. We have purchased the highest number of medications per capita in the world.”
Come on, we are number one in the world in the proportion of people testing positive.
“Because are testing more than nearly all the countries of the world. About 450,000 tests a day. I have chosen to be interviewed now and not three weeks from now, when omicron will already be a distant memory, in order to tell the public: I am here. I am directing the fight against the pandemic personally, together with my partners. It is difficult, but we know what we are doing.
“In the hospitals,” he says, “we will see a significant burden. Therefore, I have instructed the system to open geriatric hospitals as well, to integrate home-hospitalizations by the chief medical officer, together with the health maintenance organizations, and to decrease the number of elective treatments. This combination, I think, will do the job.”
When asked about Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s optimistic statements about bringing the economy back to full productivity in a short time, Bennett is measured and chooses his words cautiously. He is aware of the damage that has already been caused and that could yet be caused.
“I think we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but we will be having another two difficult weeks. And if I have learned anything from this period, it’s not to make promises.” No one has ever regretted a false prophecy that was never made.
Threats and challenges
Shortly before we sat down for this interview, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, Bennett returned from the funeral of former Supreme Court President Miriam Naor. She was a woman who came from a right-wing family but insisted on handing down rulings according to the law and doing justice, which frequently annoyed the right. Bennett delivered an honorable, dignified eulogy, as the occasion required. His Yamina party colleague, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, a former minister of justice who had quite a number of clashes with Naor, but also a friendship, revealed a hitherto unknown aspect of her persona when her voice broke as she spoke of the deceased.
I asked the prime minister what he thought of the “humane” and “Jewish” manner in which his former party colleague MK Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism), a hilltop youth in a button-down shirt, chose to bid farewell to the Supreme Court justice before she was even buried. “The things he said were despicable,” replied Bennett. “The religious Zionism in which I grew up stands for courtesy and Torah. In Smotrichism, none of that exists. It’s not the content, but rather the style. There was a hijacking here of the term ‘religious Zionism.’ None of the religious Zionist people I know, who served in the army with me, are represented by Smotrichism. Maybe his behavior derives from the fact that he wasn’t sufficiently educated in his abbreviated military service. I don’t know.”
Nearly eight months into his term in office, it is possible to discern in Bennett symptoms of sweeping self-satisfaction. Just like his predecessors. The chair is too narrow to encompass him. He is flooded with adrenalin. The role is filling him with joy and satisfaction. In the past I have cited Bill Clinton, who at the conclusion of eight years in the White House said: “Even the bad days were good.” Bennett, whose term in office will be briefer, would certainly sign his name to that. He says he even enjoys the hours he has to spend in the Knesset chamber. The screaming, the curses, the jungle “come with the territory.” To him, the coalition of extremes that he heads, the result of what he once called a “political accident,” is “just fine,” the cabinet ministers are just fine, the teamwork is just fine, the productivity is just fine and the message that is trickling down is important: that it is possible to work together.
“Establishing the government was very hard for me. I knew clearly where I was going. I knew I was about to get hit with the mother of all battles,” he says, revealing for the first time the details of one of the political negotiations he had with his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu. It took place at the beginning of May and was a determining factor in Bennett’s move to the camp for change.
“When he realized that I didn’t intend to let him drag Israel into a fifth election, he really threatened me. ‘Listen,’ he said to me, ‘if I understand correctly what you’re going to do, you should know that I am going to turn my whole machine on you, the army.’ He demonstrated with his arm,” said Bennett, imitating with his limb an airplane descending for an attack. “’I will send the drones at you, and we’ll see.”
Lawmaker Bezalel Smotrich shouts in the Knesset ahead of a confidence vote in the new government, June.Credit: Noam Moskowitz/KnessetI assume he wasn’t referring to the Israel Defense Forces, or the air force.
“No. He was talking about his army of bots, the [online] groups, his people on the radio, television and the social media networks. A kind of change came over me. I realized that everything was resting on my shoulders. That if I didn’t take the decision, I didn’t know how the country would come out of this. The additional election would have thrown us into a terrible spin. As a person who loves history and reads history, I am well aware that we are the third appearance of a Jewish state in this land. And the previous two times, the state or the kingdom survived here in a united and sovereign way – [but] they never made it past 80 years. We are now in our eighth decade. I know that this sounds big, but I think we have saved the state.”
This sounds not only big, but also messianic to some extent, though there is a grain of truth to it. The government is indeed evincing an ability to function, unlike its predecessor. It is certainly less dangerous than the alternative: an eternal vertigo of elections, or rightist and Haredi-rightist governments headed by a prime minister on trial for bribery and other felonies, a cynic devoid of restraints and morals, one who aims to clash with the legal system.
But it isn’t all a bed of roses. The slogan, “We will set aside the 20 percent about which we disagree and focus on the 80 percent about which we do agree,” isn’t withstanding the test of time. The differences are becoming sharper. Each side is accumulating frustrations and baggage: the conscription law that was toppled by the vote of a Meretz lawmaker, the citizenship law whose chances of passage are looking feeble, and the incidental “remarks,” mainly from the left, that are giving the prime minister and his colleagues bellyaches and headaches.
“The citizenship law will pass,” he told me. If with the support of the opposition, so be it. “It has to pass. In my opinion it is a national interest. Every reasonable Zionist has to be in favor of it. We have an interest in preserving a Jewish and democratic State of Israel, but it is also a security law. In the latest round of violence in the Negev, in about 40 percent of the incidents people who came here because of family reunification were involved.”
You were also angry at Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev who spoke about “settler violence,” and you were also angry at Deputy Economy and Industry Minisrer Yair Golan (Meretz), who called the Homesh settlers who attacked Arabs and vandalized tombstones “sub-humans.” Everything we have been seeing since then, at Burqa and Hawara, proves that they were right. They didn’t generalize about the whole settler community. So maybe not sub-humans, but certainly savages.
“No, no,” says Bennett. “They did so generalize, okay? Especially Yair Golan. I don’t want us to be operating in this country according to the extremes, and for everything to be defined by the most under-represented extreme. That’s the easiest thing to do and each side can do it to the other side. The vast majority of the settlers are normative, law-abiding people. Any violence by those people is despicable and it is necessary to act against it with all our might.
“I recently met with the IDF chief of staff and the head of the Shin Bet, and I said to them: Deal with that! We came to this country not in order to be Phalangists. There is a police force and there is an army, and there is also terrible Palestinian violence that has led to acts of murder, including recently.”
The pogromists and the criminals are afforded a safety net by their neighbors, their friends and also the Yesha Council politicos. They make do with a generic condemnation, but there are no arrests and no indictments.
“You are mistaken,” said Bennett. “The vast majority of the settlers realize the damage that is being done to them. Unlike you, I know how many things we have been preventing.”
We are talking about Jews, whom you see as brothers. Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Bar-Lev have called them terrorists. Do you agree, or do you think that only Palestinians who do such deeds are terrorists?
“No. Any individual who acts with sweeping violence, to injure or to kill – of course that is terror.”
In no hurry
At the beginning of the week the cabinet approved, by a sweeping majority, the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the affair of the procurement of submarines and naval vessels following the high-profile corruption scandal involving associates of Netanyahu. I asked Bennett to explain his strange abstention in that vote, which was unprecedented both for him and, to the best of my recollection, for any prime minister. He offered some background:
“In my first week or two on the job, they came to me from the Defense Ministry and the National Security Council and said: ‘We have a really big problem. In a few months [former German Chancellor Angela] Merkel will have completed her term in office and there is a danger we will lose the strategic continuity in the matter of the submarines. This is a critical issue.’
“I invited Merkel to Israel. The matter wasn’t on her radar either. The issue had in fact been suspended because of all the incidents of corruption. I made a note to myself: First get the submarines. Until that was signed, I imposed a veto on the commission. The moment it was signed – I lifted the veto.
“On the substance of the matter, I am not keen on an excess of commissions of inquiry. Certainly not when it’s about something that happened years ago, in a different government. Especially as the matter of the procurement procedures has been amended. We conducted an orderly procedure, two meetings of the ministerial committee on improving national security and every minister got educated. However, this is indeed a matter of the holy of holies. It’s also a topic that was very close to their hearts and at the core of the campaign of my colleagues in the government. I thought it wasn’t right to vote against something that was such a burning issue for them. That’s how this government works, with good will.”
You can’t be certain that an incident like this isn’t going to recur in the future.
“Okay, the Agranat Commission” – which investigated Israel’s readiness prior to the Yom Kippur War – “determined that there had been an intelligence failure, so were there no more intelligence failures afterward? On my watch, business is being conducted properly. In the end, it all depends on individuals. If there are honest people who are leading operations, it will be managed honestly. If not, then seven commissions of inquiry won’t help. In addition, there is a legal proceeding.”
A proceeding that isn’t examining for example, why Netanyahu permitted the Germans to sell strategic submarines to the Egypt without the defense establishment knowing about it.
“Right, right.”
Incidentally, abstaining isn’t a bad system. It can serve you in the future as well, say regarding a law that prevents a defendant from forming a government.
Bennett smiled: “Everything will be examined on its own merits. I haven’t gone deeply into that yet; the issue hasn’t even come up in the forum of party leaders.”
Speaking of Netanyahu and corruption – tell me the truth: Didn’t you feel relieved that the plea bargain is off the agenda for now?
“I have an interesting political insight,” he replied. “For several days the plea bargain gave all the players a glimpse into how the future will look in the battles for succession in Likud – the machines, the poison and so on. Everyone in the coalition took a deep breath and said: Just a minute – our government isn’t bad at all. Therefore, I don’t see a future plea bargain as a significant threat to the coalition, On the contrary, it will weaken the opposition and it will be easier for us in the Knesset.
“What will emerge” – if Netanyahu leaves – “is basically a new national and properly-run governmental camp that believes in principles and doesn’t bow down to one individual or another. I give expression to that approach.”
And as a citizen?
“In Israel, I think that if it is possible at long last to end this chapter in the history of the state, a bad, toxic chapter, those struggles, what is called ‘Balfour’ and the Bibi-ists, it is best if that’s the case. I wouldn’t want to see Netanyahu in prison, in a prisoner’s uniform. It’s not a picture that would respect him or the citizens of this country.”
No illusions
The personal relationship, alongside the professional relationship, that has developed between the relatively new prime minister and the relatively new president of Israel is a rare one. When Bennett mentions President Isaac Herzog, his expression softens. His name came up when I wanted to clarify whether Israel and Turkey are indeed about to see the dawn of a new day. (The interview was conducted a day before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Herzog would be visiting Ankara in the middle of next month.)
“The Middle East today is a Middle East without a super-cop,” said Bennett, “which means that Israel must act in order to be an anchor of leadership and stability in the region. It has to play on a lot of fields. This also means building bridges.
“I have no illusions with regard to Turkey. I have seen what happened at moments of crisis in Gaza. We are very familiar with all the dynamics. And yet, there was the affair of the Oknin family” – the Israeli couple that was imprisoned in Turkey this past November as suspected spies. “The good, rapid job done by President Erdogan in resolving the incident, together with our need to look at the whole region and especially Iran, our biggest enemy – necessitates more dialogue. I don’t rule out our president meeting Erdogan.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to put in a word. We have an excellent president. We have a special relationship of trust. He is a diplomatic asset for the country, and it is as such that I intend to make use of him for the national interest. This” – the issue of Turkey – “is one of the cases in which I can get help from him.”
Iran, an integral part of every interview with an Israeli prime minister in the last two decades, continues to take up the better part of the time Bennett devotes to security. He is familiar with the reports of a “positive atmosphere,” supposedly, in the Vienna talks on the Iranian nuclear program. I asked whether he has heard about a number of resignations from the team headed by the U.S. Special Representative for Iran Rob Malley, supposedly because of his overly acquiescent approach.
Bennett nodded. “I don’t work on automatic. I’m not looking for a quarrel with the Americans for the sake of a quarrel. On the contrary. But I think that pouring billions of dollars into the Iranian machine, which is the regional centrum of terror that exports money and methods to Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, and all of that in return for nearly nothing, is the last thing that should be done.
“I am determined to prevent Iran not only from a breakthrough to a bomb, but also from getting to where it could break through [to nuclear capability] within a short time. Whether or not there is a deal, we are building a strategy to deal with this. It is no secret that we have inherited a very difficult legacy. They took a path, but they didn’t build what was needed to sustain that path. I have allocated billions of shekels to closing the gaps.”
I asked him about the Russian-Syrian aerial maneuvers that took place a few days ago in the skies of the north. What are the Russians trying to signal to us?
“We have significantly increased the extent of the activity in Syria. Everyone who has eyes in his head sees that. Both quantitatively and qualitatively,” he said. “Russia is a very significant player. I relate to them as our northern neighbor. I have an increasingly grounded, good relationship with President Putin. We will contain to maintain the IDF’s complete freedom to act. Including in Syria.” About the aerial exercise, “We are talking with the relevant people.”
Bennett has been fortunate in that during his 225 days in office, the Gaza Strip has been giving him some rest. Operation Guardian of the Walls, which came during the twilight of the previous government, has maintained the deterrence. In addition, he has been relatively liberal with regard to the economic easements, and relatively tough against any incidental rocket or explosive balloon.
“I believe,” he said, “that it is necessary to do everything possible to keep war at a distance. We are in the midst of significantly increasing our military strength, investing a lot in tools we haven’t had. At the same time, I am no less aggressive in strengthening the economy, both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria. From my perspective, we should enable the economy as much as possible. But we, unlike the previous government, respond seriously to every violation and attack really painful targets there.”
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