Hardline minister is playing the long game

NAFTALI BENNETT has one political model: Benjamin Netanyahu.

A former special forces officer, Mr Bennett came into politics after a short but successful business career in New York.

Once back in Israel, he used the sophisticated media skills he learned in the US, along with his American accent, to take over and modernise an ailing political party.

Mr Bennett is Mr Netanyahu’s biggest admirer and has followed a similar career path, only instead of being a dashing diplomat at the United Nations headquarters, he was a hi-tech entrepreneur.

Hoping to learn from the master, in 2007, after he made his millions, Mr Bennett became chief of staff to the then leader of the opposition, Mr Netanyahu. But Bibi has never been one to groom successors and Mr Bennett fell foul of Mrs Netanyahu when he refused to co-ordinate her husband’s diary according to her wishes.

In 2012, Mr Bennett joined Jewish Home, the failing and shrunken remnant of the old National Religious Party.

With a slick campaign, he ran for its leadership primaries and won — just as Mr Netanyahu had done in the early 1990s with the Likud, leading it to major electoral gains.

However, Mr Bennett could not maintain his emulation of Mr Netanyahu. Likud, even in opposition, was a contender for power. Despite Mr Bennett broadening the appeal of Jewish Home, it will always remain a niche party. A coalition partner, but not the senior partner. Which is why at 45 years old — the age at which Mr Netanyahu first became prime minister — Mr Bennett is still playing the long game.

In private, Mr Bennett likes to talk about being the next prime minister, but he can only do so as leader of Likud. And while he cannot return to Likud as long as Mr Netanyahu is still there, Mr Bennett knows he will not become prime minister even when Bibi finally leaves. It will take longer than that.

Mr Bennett has a long-term strategy. Once Mr Netanyahu is gone, he aims to split Jewish Home, leaving the more radical wing behind, and merge the remaining rump with Likud.

Once inside the party, with his own power-base, he believes he can become leader. Which is why everything Mr Bennett does right now amounts to positioning. He proposes intentionally meaningless, hardline laws, like the latest one preventing Israeli withdrawals from Jerusalem, to present himself as the leader of the Israeli right.

Meanwhile, he tours Arab schools and meets Reform rabbis to project a parallel, more pragmatic image. “Naftali is getting ready for the day Bibi is gone,” says one of his confidants.

“Right now, he’s the right-wing hawk, but when the moment is right he’ll break for the centre-ground.”