Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, leaders of HaBayit HaYehudi, have logged many hours with Benjamin Netanyahu over the years. They spent almost two years (2006-2008) with him as close advisers — Bennett as his chief of staff and Shaked as the director of his office — when he served as chair of the opposition and was preparing to run for prime minister. A clash with Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, forced the pair to leave a year before Netanyahu was re-elected to office.
Like many others who worked with Netanyahu over the years — ministers, advisers, spokespersons — Bennett and Shaked supposedly knew how he makes decisions. They were also familiar with the indecisiveness that grips him until the very last moment, his flip-flops and reaction to pressure, and his susceptibility to blackmail. In 2005, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon described Netanyahu as “easily panicked.”