On October 27, Israelis will head to the polls to vote in what is arguably the most important election in the country’s history.
In our series of explainers, we lay out the runners and riders vying to lead the country.
Here’s what you need to know about Beyachad co-leader Naftali Bennett.
Naftali Bennett’s political career has been characterised by dramatic reversals. He has moved from political obscurity to the leadership of religious Zionism, from failing to enter the Knesset to becoming prime minister, and from withdrawing from politics to presenting himself as a potential successor to Benjamin Netanyahu.
Yet, ahead of the election on October 27, Bennett is again confronting the unpredictability that has defined his career.
Born in Haifa in 1972 to American immigrant parents, Bennett served in the elite Sayeret Matkal and Maglan units before entering Israel’s technology sector. He co-founded the cybersecurity company Cyota, which was sold in 2005 for approximately $145 million.
His military background, business success, religious identity and fluent English later enabled him to appeal to constituencies beyond traditional religious Zionism.
Bennett entered national politics as then leader of the opposition Netanyahu’s chief of staff between 2006 and 2008.
However, the relationship deteriorated, and Bennett began constructing an independent political identity. After serving as director-general of the Yesha Council, representing Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, he won the leadership of the repackaged National Religious Party, called the Jewish Home Party in 2012.
His first national election was a major success. Jewish Home won 12 seats in 2013, establishing Bennett as the leading representative of a younger, more modern form of religious Zionism.
He promoted entrepreneurship, economic liberalism, settlement construction and a firm position against Palestinian statehood, while attempting to broaden his party’s appeal beyond its traditional religious base.
Bennett formed an important alliance with Yair Lapid following the 2013 election. Although they represented different constituencies, Bennett the religious right, and Lapid, the secular centre, they coordinated their coalition negotiations and entered Netanyahu’s government together. Bennett has served in several senior positions under Netanyahu, including economy minister, education minister and defence minister.
However, his ambitions repeatedly encountered setbacks. In December 2018, Bennett and Ayelet Shaked left Jewish Home to establish the New Right Party, hoping to unite religious and secular right-wing voters. In the April 2019 election, the party narrowly failed to cross the electoral threshold. Bennett, once considered a future leader of the Israeli right, found himself outside the Knesset.
He returned through the Yamina alliance and eventually became defence minister, but his greatest political breakthrough followed the 2021 election. Yamina won only seven seats, leaving Bennett with a relatively small parliamentary faction but considerable negotiating power and leverage. Neither Netanyahu nor his opponents could easily form a government without him.
Bennett ultimately joined Lapid in constructing an unprecedented coalition that included parties from the right, centre and left, together with Ra’am, an Islamist Arab party. Under their rotation agreement, Bennett became prime minister in June 2021, ending Netanyahu’s 12 consecutive years in office.
His appointment was both an extraordinary personal achievement and a source of lasting political difficulty. Critics on the right accused him of breaking promises not to govern with Lapid or Ra’am. Several members of Yamina abandoned the coalition, claiming that it had moved too far from the party’s original principles.
Supporters argue that Bennett’s government demonstrated that politicians with profound ideological differences could cooperate. It passed Israel’s first state budget in more than three years, managed another phase of the coronavirus pandemic without imposing sweeping lockdowns, and strengthened regional diplomacy through the Negev Forum. Bennett also sought to replace constant political confrontation with a more managerial and pragmatic style of government.
Nevertheless, the coalition’s narrow majority made it vulnerable to every internal dispute. After a series of defections, Bennett and Lapid dissolved the Knesset in June 2022. Bennett transferred the premiership to Lapid and announced that he would not contest the next election. His period as prime minister lasted slightly more than one year.
The Hamas-led massacre of October 7, 2023, created the conditions for Bennett’s political return. He became increasingly visible through public diplomacy, military-related activity and criticism of the government’s handling of the war. In April 2025, he registered a new party, initially known as Bennett 2026, and polls suggested that he could emerge as Netanyahu’s strongest challenger.
In April, Bennett renewed his partnership with Lapid by merging their political forces under a joint electoral framework led by Bennett called Beyachad (Together). The alliance was designed to unite the centre-right and centre, avoid wasted opposition votes and demonstrate that the cooperation established in 2021 could provide a stable alternative government.
Initially, the partnership appeared capable of becoming the largest force in the Knesset. However, it has not performed as well as Bennett hoped. Instead of consolidating the anti-Netanyahu electorate around him, the alliance appears to have lost momentum.
Some right-wing voters remain suspicious of Lapid, while some centrist voters may be uncomfortable with Bennett’s opposition to Palestinian statehood and his religious-nationalist background.
The principal beneficiary has been former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, who has risen in the polls and is now widely considered Netanyahu’s main challenger across the aisle.
Bennett nevertheless remains central to the election. His appeal is based on presenting himself as right-wing on security, pragmatic in government, and capable of working across political divisions.
His challenge is to persuade voters that his partnership with Lapid represents responsible national unity rather than political inconsistency.
As the campaign period officially begins, Bennett is neither the clear successor to Netanyahu nor a marginal contender. His political fortunes have risen and fallen too often for either conclusion.
The coming campaign will determine whether his premiership was an exceptional product of parliamentary arithmetic or the beginning of a longer claim to national leadership.
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