Bennett says he can work with Trump despite US president’s endorsement of Netanyahu

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who leads the opposition B’Yachad party, says that he will be able to work with US President Donald Trump despite Trump’s endorsement today of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling students at Tel Aviv University that the Israeli public will decide who leads the country.

“I know I can get along very well with President Trump,” he says.

“Ultimately, in international politics, every leader works with the leader who is elected,” Bennett says.

He argues that Israel will be able to restore its standing around the world under his leadership and says the country “succeeded very well before Netanyahu” and will “succeed much more after Netanyahu.”

Bennett’s party is currently polling third, behind opposition frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party, and Netanyahu’s Likud. But he has continued to campaign as a candidate for prime minister.

Asked who the next prime minister will be, Bennett replies that voters will decide, adding, “I’m certainly running for the job.”

However, he notes that the next prime minister does not necessarily have to come from the party with the most votes. That is what happened when Bennett became prime minister in 2021, when his party had just six seats in the coalition but played a key role in briefly unseating Netanyahu.

Bennett also calls for unity between the Zionist left and right, saying “I believe the Zionist left and the Zionist right, who fought together in Gaza, will repair the State of Israel together.”

Asked whether he would sit in a government with right-wing parties currently allied with Netanyahu, he does not give a direct yes or no, explaining that he is a “liberal right-winger” and that parties could work together if they accepted his party’s core principles — namely a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, which Netanyahu and his allies have opposed.