Israel’s Bennett in dilemma over his growing popularity
Current polls give the Yamina party and its leader Naftali Bennett excellent results, just three seats short of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud.
Israel’s biggest political parking lot is named “Naftali Bennett.” Polls conducted in recent weeks consistently give his Yamina party 20 Knesset seats and more. In the March elections, he barely garnered six seats (of 120), which dropped to five after Rabbi Rafi Peretz split off from the party. Bennett’s current 20-plus seats in the polls consist of many disenchanted voters from other parties. Although a right-wing ideologue, Bennett, so it seems, has siphoned off voters from the centrist Blue and White party (worth an estimated 6-7 seats), from the ruling Likud (worth at least 10) and from a variety of parties across the political spectrum.
The draw of Bennett’s “parking lot” for these disparate voters lies in the coronavirus crisis. He comes across as just what the country needs to lead it to safety with his proven entrepreneurship, creativity and abilities — as just about everything that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not.
