PROFILE - Pro-settlement Naftali Bennett becomes Israel's prime minister

By Abdelraouf Arna'out

JERUSALEM (AA) - The new Israeli government headed by Naftali Bennett on Sunday won a vote of confidence, 60-59, in the Knesset to become Israel’s new government.

Bennett, 49, has become known over the past decade as a hardline far-right politician who strongly backs illegal settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories and for his hate speech against Palestinians, and for loudly rejecting the concept of a Palestinian state.

Bennett entered politics in 2005 as a deputy of Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, and since then held many positions, including top roles in the defense, economy, and education ministries.

Bennett argues that Israel should annex parts of the occupied Palestinian regions in the West Bank.

In 2012 he was elected leader of the Jewish Home party, then moved on to form the right-wing Yamina party in 2020 and took part in the coalition led by Netanyahu. His party won seven seats in the general elections this March.

Under a coalition agreement between Naftali's Yamina party and seven other Israeli parties, Bennett, represented by seven lawmakers in parliament, will assume the premiership for the first two years, with Yair Lapid, from the centrist Yesh Atid party, to succeed him in the second two years.

In 2013, he drew controversy for saying that "Palestinian terrorists" should be killed instead of being released.

He also claimed that the West Bank was not under occupation and that there was no such thing as a Palestinian state.

Bennett's parents were born in the US but he grew up in Haifa, northern Israel, and joined the Israeli army’s elite reconnaissance unit, known as "sayeret matkal."

"I've killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there's no problem with that," Bennett, a former Israeli commando, once said.

After Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas last month forged a cease-fire to end attacks by Israel that targeted Gaza and killed 254 Palestinians, Bennett and Lapid agreed to form a coalition.

Bennett is a millionaire thanks to a tech company he built from scratch, and has always appealed to far-right voters in Israel during his political career.

*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara