Bennett accuses Netanyahu of ‘groveling’ before Haredi parties to stay in control

By Sam Sokol 20 May 2026, 4:58 pm

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Sam 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 speaks during a press conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, May 20, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Visiting the Knesset for the first time since leaving politics in 2022, former premier Naftali Bennett launches a scathing attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, arguing that its insistence on advocating for Haredi draft exemptions is killing Israeli troops.

“The outgoing government, in its final days, is not pursuing our enemies. It is not pursuing the perpetrators of crime and public disturbances across the entire country. It is now courting, with all its might, the draft-evasion operators from the Haredi parties,” Bennett says during a joint press conference with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, his partner on the new Together list.

Bennett accuses Netanyahu of “running around like the lowest of vote contractors, groveling before [Shas chairman Aryeh] Deri and [Degel HaTorah chairman Moshe] Gafni just to hand them an official document of surrender.”

Directly addressing Netanyahu, Bennett says: “It’s over, let go.”

According to Bennett, IDF soldiers “are being told that they need to abandon positions they have already captured, simply because there are no soldiers to hold those positions. And then they have to capture that same position a second and third time. This costs us soldiers’ lives. It cannot go on like this.”

Asked about his meeting with Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot on Sunday, Bennett replies that he believes “victory will come from a huge, large, and united party under my leadership. I believe that is what will happen.”

Asked by The Times of Israel if he will speak with the media more than Netanyahu, who rarely holds press conferences, Bennett replies in the affirmative, declaring that he is “in favor of communication with the public.”