Bennett claims planned attack on Sinwar and Hamas chiefs was shelved when Yamina MK quit coalition; tells Netanyahu to ‘go home’

Bennett defends his approach to Hamas-ruled Gaza while he was premier, asserting that plans were in place to take out Yahya Sinwar and other top members of the terror group but they were shelved “because Idit Silman toppled the government,” referring to a member of his then-Yamina party who helped bring down his coalition in 2022 by depriving it of a ruling majority.

“We talked about decapitating them and all the leadership of Hamas,” he says. According to Bennett, this was not because he predicted October 7, 2023 — “I did not foresee October 7,” he stresses — but because the security chiefs had warned of a potential multi-front conflict relating to the Temple Mount, he feared that would set the region on fire, and thus he wanted to take the initiative against Hamas.

Asked whether October 7 could have taken place on his watch, he stresses that “the event took place on Netanyahu’s watch. That’s the fact,” and claims he had a “zero tolerance” for Hamas attacks. “I didn’t let them get close to the fence.”

He says Israel is a “nation of lions, with failed leadership,” and notes that he coined the term “nation of lions” as Israel responded after October 7, 2023, when “the government disappeared… and the people rose” to fight back.

Bennett says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “needs to go home,” and, at the third time of asking, rules out the prospect of joining a future government led by him. “That’s correct,” he says, when asked specifically whether he is saying that he would not sit in a government with Netanyahu.

In any democracy, 20 years is too long for a prime minister to serve, and cites the damage he has done to Israeli society by failing to take responsibility for his failures and spreading internal “poison.”

He denounces the current government for continuing “to fund Hamas” via aid sent into Gaza.

He says in light of its failure to take decisive decisions on Gaza, the government should “go for a comprehensive deal, getting out all the hostages, deploying [the IDF] along the entire Gaza perimeter.” It should leave the work of destroying Hamas to the next government, he says.

“The government’s performance is dreadful,” he says, citing its failure to draft the ultra-Orthodox and enable the IDF to deploy the necessary force for a “crushing blow” against Hamas.

The people want a government that runs the country calmly and effectively, he says, and does not want to be the subjects of Haredi politicians in a government where the tail wags the dog. “This so very good generation [of Israelis] wants a good state, united, normal… Netanyahu represents the opposite of that.”

He says he hopes there will “be a compromise, an agreement” that puts Netanyahu’s criminal trial “behind us.”

That matters less to him, he says, than the fact that soldiers are going into Gaza in inadequately protected vehicles because the government is focused on other, less important issues.