Bennett denounces Netanyahu as an ‘anarchist’ whose toxic campaigning could lead to violence against political rivals

Former prime minister and the current head of the B’Yachad party, Naftali Bennett, denounces Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “anarchist” whose toxic campaigning could put his main rival Gadi Eisenkot in physical danger ahead of the October 27 election.

Bennett makes the comments in a wide-ranging interview with Channel 12 that accompanies the release of a new book by journalist Ari Shavit, titled “Bennett: Hour of Truth,” based on dozens of conversations between the two.

Bennett alleges that a pro-Netanyahu “poison machine” — including the Likud campaigns and a network of pro-Netanyahu media and social media outlets, headed by the Channel 14 network — has since created a false image of him as power-hungry and obsessive for the post of prime minister, arguing that his real motive is to save the country.

Recent months have seen Bennett’s alliance with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid consistently lose ground in opinion polls, with the centrist Yashar party chief Eisenkot becoming the main rival to Netanyahu.

“I’m running for prime minister, with by far the most experience [in the anti-Netanyahu bloc],” Bennett tells Channel 12, while adding: “I will do anything that guarantees victory for the bloc. One minute after the election we will go into a room, Gadi, [Yisrael Beytenu party head Avigdor Liberman] and the whole bloc, and we will exit with a single candidate. I won’t do anything that endangers the replacement of the government, and if I need to be in the most junior position in the world — so be it.”

He also voices fear that the Likud-led campaign against him, Eisenkot, Liberman and Yair Golan could lead to political violence, saying he fears it will get to the point that some people “will think they are Hitler and make a move.”

While he himself has security as a former prime minister, Bennett says Eisenkot, who doesn’t have security, is in potential danger. “The scale of the daily brainwashing on Channel 14, in the [poison] machine’s elements, is very, very powerful.”

Commenting on an excerpt from the book which he described Netanyahu as “revolutionary” as opposed to a conservative, Bennett says he would now go beyond “revolutionary” and describe Netanyahu as “almost an anarchist. What we are going through over the past few years is anarchy in the State of Israel.”