The former prime minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett, asks for Netanyahu's departure: “20 years in power is too much”
Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett during an organized demonstration for issuing Hamas hostages in New York. Photo: SOPA IMAGES / SIPA Press / Profimedia
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “must leave office”, asks for his predecessor, Naftali Bennett, who catalogs as a “disaster” how Israel manages the situation in an interview in which he maintains his own intentions, AFP reports, according to News.ro.
The current head of the Government “has been in power for 20 years (…). It is too much. It is not healthy”, “he carries (…) a difficult responsibility in the dissensions of Israeli society” and “must leave,” says channel 12, broadcast on Saturday, Naftali Bennett.
Naftali Bennett contributed in 2021, while he was the leader of the New Right party, to the removal of Benjamin Netanyahu from power, after 12 uninterrupted years to the head of the government. But a fragile coalition with Yair Lapid (center), currently the opposition leader, lasted only one year.
Bennett did not apply for the anticipated elections that followed and resulted in the return to power of Netanyahu, supported by far -right parties and Jewish ultra -Orthodox formations.
Naftali Bennett seems to prepare a return to politics for several months, and several polls give him the best placed to defeat the current prime minister in case of elections.
The former prime minister evokes in this interview the “12 -day war” with Iran.
The decision to attack Iran “was very good” and “imposed itself”, but the Israeli offensive would not have been possible if he did not have set up his basis while he was leading the government, in June 2021 in June 2022, Bennett considers.
Regarding the war in the Gaza Strip, Naftali Bennett believes that “the performances (the Israeli army) in (the strip) Gaza are exceptional”, but “the political management of Israel” is “a catastrophe, a disaster.”
“Due to the inability of the government to cut,” he “proposes the conclusion of a global agreement (to allow) the release of all the hostages” held in the Gaza Strip and “leaving a future Government to eliminate Hamas.”
Naftali Bennett did not answer more questions about his intentions in case of elections and said that “he is not about to make lists.”
The current legislature ends in November 2026, but anticipated elections are possible.
