From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Bennett accuses former ally Silman of stigmatizing mental illness even as PTSD is on the rise among public
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett accuses Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman and Religious Zionism MK Ohad Tal of increasing the stigma around mental illness, after the two spread claims that he was mentally unfit for office during his time in the Prime Minister’s office.
The two lawmakers “should be ashamed,” he declares at a campaign rally in Tel Aviv, not the Israeli troops returning from war suffering from mental trauma.
Bennett has filed a libel suit against the pair, as well as the pro-government Channel 14, over a recording of Silman, formerly a member of his now-defunct Yamina party, who served as coalition whip during his 2021-2022 government, in which she claims that Bennett was mentally unstable and heavily medicated while serving as prime minister.
The recording was aired by Channel 14, and then circulated further by Tal, who sent mocking well-wishes to Bennett on X and claimed that his decision to bring the Islamist Ra’am party into his coalition was clearly the result of a mental illness.
The Times of Israel Community.