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Israel’s Bennett strives for new center-right electorate

As new prime minister in a government composed of the right, center and left, Naftali Bennett strives to create for himself a new political base.
Incoming Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett attends the first meeting of the new government, Jerusalem, June 13, 2021.

“I may not have slept for 36 hours, but in these 36 hours we did what you didn't accomplish in 36 months.” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made that offhand remark Aug. 2, when his Cabinet approved the proposed budget. He was in the Knesset plenum, because the Likud managed to wrangle the 40 signatures from Knesset members needed to obligate him to attend a debate under the heading, “The Government’s Failure in Protecting the Security and Diplomatic Interests of the State of Israel and Its Harming of Israel’s Heritage.”

Bennett's remark came in response to a series of harsh attacks by members of the opposition. He was accused of passing a budget that harms the weaker sectors of the population. Meanwhile, coalition Knesset member Mansour Abbas of Ra’am, not Bennett, was called “the de facto prime minister,” for the enormous budgets he was able to get for the economic and social development of the Arab sector.

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