Yamina leader Naftali Bennett’s story is the story of Israeli politics: a breathtaking rollercoaster ride with steep inclines and wild plunges, chronic manic depression, a humiliating political burial and a stupefying comeback against all the odds. Bennett, exiled from the Knesset in the April 2019 elections when his right-wing party failed to garner sufficient votes to cross the electoral threshold, is the official, refreshing flavor of summer 2020 in Israeli politics. Just over a year after being pronounced politically dead on arrival, Bennett is now declaring his intent to run for prime minister in the next elections.

Bennett’s incredible transformation can be attributed to his performance on the opposition benches and during a brief stint as defense minister, a post to which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed him in November 2019 to prevent him from crossing the lines to the rival Blue and White party. Bennett identified the opportunity and milked it for all it was worth. He was an energetic, proactive defense chief, mobilizing the military for the fight against the coronavirus, and perhaps the only Israeli politician for whom the coronavirus pandemic could not have come at a more opportune moment.

While the government dithered on handling the pandemic, Bennett displayed unusual independence and initiative. After a new government was formed in May 2020, and Bennett opted for the opposition benches rather than join it, he appointed himself shadow coronavirus minister, proposing initiatives, presenting plans and meeting with victims of the pandemic’s economic fallout, standing out against the backdrop of the government’s failure to stem the disease.

The blueprint for fighting the coronavirus resurgence, presented amid much fanfare at the end of July by professor Ronni Gamzu, the project manager appointed by the government, was a near replica of Bennett’s early April proposal, which was ignored at the time. Bennett identified the economic crisis before it erupted and focused on it. When all the politicians around him were busy forming a new government and handing out the electoral booty of the March 2 elections, Bennett insisted on one mantra: “ensuring livelihoods.”