Former PM Bennett slams government, calls to change political & military leadership

Bennett praised current younger generation as 'generation of lions'

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Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called for change in Israel's leadership on Wednesday while condemning the Netanyahu government for its failure to prevent the Hamas Oct. 7 invasion and massacre.

He slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership amid the country’s worst security crisis since its establishment in 1948.

“We need change. The leadership is not good – it does not have good values,” Bennett stated at a conference organized by the Israel Hayom newspaper in Herzliya, close to Tel Aviv.

“The leadership often puts personal interests ahead of the good of the state, or the good of a sector above the good of the state,” he argued, referring to Netanyahu and his religious coalition partners.

Bennett, a former Netanyahu ally, also blasted the Netanyahu government for issuing irresponsible statements and mishandling Israel’s diplomatic ties with allies.

“Or it insistently ignores the rest of the world and declares, ‘We’ll bomb here’ or ‘We’ll drop an atom bomb on Gaza.’ It’s childish and irresponsible behavior,” he added.

While Bennett backs the war in Gaza against the Hamas terrorist organization, he criticized the Netanyahu government for failing to deliver a decisive blow and ignoring the fact that Hamas continues to recruit.

“When you count bodies, you are assuming a finite number of combatants, but you have a population of one million to draw on. They could have recruited another 10,000 in the meantime.”

Bennett has refrained from criticizing the government in public regarding the Gaza War until recently but now called for new leadership and received applause from the audience.

“I have come to the conclusion that it must be done. The leadership must be changed… the political leadership and, honestly, the security leadership too. These are people I love but they too have to be changed,” Bennett pledged.

Bennett said the State of Israel failed the Jewish people on Oct. 7.

“On October 7, the State of Israel failed in its basic mission – to be a safe state for the Jewish people,” Bennett argued. “For about a month, the state did not function properly.”

He praised the heroism of the many Israelis of various backgrounds who risked and, in many cases, sacrificed their lives to defend the Jewish state.

“The heroism that was revealed on October 7 is at a level [that was] unknown to me,” the former prime minister said, praising Israeli youth as a “generation of lions.”

“All across the country, volunteering initiatives sprouted up, and the young generation made itself available again and again,” Bennett added.

Bennett's comments are highly unusual, as attacks against political opponents are a daily occurence - but criticism of the country's security services is very rare in Israeli politics.

In addition, both IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, as well as Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, were appointed during Bennett's short tenure as Prime Minister in 2021.

אחרי שנפתלי בנט קרא אתמול להחליף את ההנהגה הביטחונית שמונתה בתקופת ממשלתו: הבוקר הוא פגש את הרמטכ״ל הרצי הלוי בלשכת הגיוס בתל השומר, כשהגיע ללוות את בנו יוני שמתגייס הבוקר ליחידה מובחרת של צה״ל pic.twitter.com/RHQHPJJFyf
— דורון קדוש | Doron Kadosh (@Doron_Kadosh) August 15, 2024

The day after criticizing the security leadership, Bennett was photographed together with IDF chief Halevi at the army's recruiting office in Tel Hashomer, where he accompanied his son who was recruited into an elite unit.

Himself a former IDF elite combat officer, Bennett recently also criticized the Netanyahu government in a New York Times interview for focusing its defense against Iran’s terrorist proxies Hamas and Hezbollah instead of the Iranian regime itself.

Bennett argued that “the head of the octopus is much weaker, much more vulnerable and feeble, than its arms.”

“So how foolish are we to engage in war with the arms when we could engage with the head?” he asked, referring to his “Octopus Doctrine,” which calls for striking the Iranian regime directly in response to its terror proxies' aggression against Israel.

Despite his criticism, Bennett is optimistic about Israel’s future.

“When I look at our trajectory 50 years forward, we’re going to succeed enormously,” Bennett argued.

While not confirming publicly, Bennett has strongly indicated that he intends to return to Israeli politics.

In May, Bennett praised the hundreds of millions of Evangelicals who support the Jewish state in an exclusive interview with THE ROSENBERG REPORT.

“As a man of faith, I deeply appreciate and respect the great love Israel is getting from hundreds of millions of Evangelicals,” Bennett said. “It means a lot. The love that you show to the Jewish state matters. Come to Israel, speak up. Don't let anyone talk bad about the Jewish state.”