Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaking at the Epicenter Briefing (Photo: Patrick Wright, TJF staff)
WASHINGTON, DC — What is the current atmosphere in Israel, given an entire year of war and Israel being attacked on seven different fronts – from Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and the West Bank?
“It’s a very good question,” said former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett during a recent Q&A session in Carlsbad, California.
Israelis know that they are fighting for their lives, Bennett replied.
They are anxious, understanding the magnitude of the threats against them and how much of the world has turned against the Jewish state and Jewish people.
At the same time, Israelis are also deeply resolved, he said, to fight as hard as it takes, and as long as it takes, to win.
Bennett then said there are two key things that Israelis need in this dark and troubling hour.
The first is true national unity instead of deep and continuing domestic division and polarization.
The second is much closer ties to the Christian community in the United States and around the world – the most faithful and consistent friends that Israelis have outside the Jewish community.
More on both points in a moment.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaking at the Epicenter Briefing (Photo: Patrick Wright, TJF staff)
BENNETT ADDRESSES EVANGELICALS AT THE 2024 EPICENTER BRIEFING
Let’s start with some context.
Several months ago, I invited Bennett to be the opening keynote speaker at our 2024 “Epicenter Briefing,” an intimate, invitation-only gathering of Evangelical leaders and lay people that my wife, Lynn, and I organized and hosted for ALL ISRAEL NEWS and The Joshua Fund.
Both are non-profit and thus non-partisan organizations that we co-founded to educate Evangelical Christians and mobilize them to bless Israel and her neighbors through prayer, humanitarian relief, encouragement and financial support for Jews and Christians in the region, and so forth.
Mike Pompeo, former CIA director and U.S. secretary of state, was the keynote speaker at our first Epicenter Briefing in September 2021. (see his remarks here)
Mike Huckabee, the former governor and presidential candidate, was the keynote at our last Briefing.
This year, on the eve of the first anniversary of the October 7 war, we were curious about Bennett’s perspective as a former prime minister, defense minister, education minister, successful entrepreneur, and as a religious, observant, Orthodox Jewish husband and father who, himself, fought against Hezbollah in Lebanon as an IDF commander in an elite special forces unit.
We wanted to understand what he thought really happened on that dreadful day, what’s happened since, and what he thinks should happen next.
I can report that nearly all of the 150 or so participants who attended the Epicenter Briefing were very moved by – and supportive of – what Bennett came to say.
Indeed, he received a long and resounding standing ovation when he was finished.
BENNETT: ISRAEL IS FIGHTING A PHYSICAL WAR AND A SPIRITUAL WAR
“There is anxiety that I’ve never seen before in Israel in my lifetime, but there’s also resilience and determination,” Bennett told us.
“We’re going to beat them,” he said of Israel’s enemies. “We’re going win.”
He said Israel must not only defeat Hamas and Hezbollah but bring down the wicked Iranian regime before it’s too late – before they build and deploy nuclear weapons.
“We’re fighting a physical war, but also a spiritual war”, he said.
“You know, as early as October 8th, before we even entered Gaza – we entered Gaza only about three weeks later – already we were being condemned for genocide.”
The goal of these lies is “a very concerted attack on Israel by a combination of two fundamentally different strands,” Bennett explained.
“One is radical Islamic jihadist ideology, and the other is radical progressive ideology.”
“Obviously, if those progressive folks would spend one day in Gaza they’d be killed for gazillion different stuff,” Bennett noted. “Tolerance is not one of the big things in Gaza.”
“Somehow, when it comes to the Jewish state, they [these two ideologies] merge and have created this typhoon of lies.”
“The goal is to break our spirit and to tie our hands through boycotts, through embargoes.”
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaking at the Epicenter Briefing (Photo: Patrick Wright, TJF staff)
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST THREAT FACING ISRAEL TODAY?
“We’re resilient,” Bennett insisted. “We’re going to pull out of it.”
But he added that Israel’s “biggest challenge is one from within – domestic internal polarization that we experienced during 2023.”
“Prior to October 7,” Bennett noted, “we were tearing ourselves apart – left and right, religious and secular – just tearing ourselves apart.”
“I believe it was Lincoln who said, ‘A house divided cannot stand.’”
“Our enemies – who could have attacked two years ago, four years ago, ten years ago – they were following this. We know this now from intelligence reports. They saw that Israel is weakening because of this internal war and we were weaker and weaker and weaker.”
“Our immune system grew weaker, and they waited for the lowest moment and – bam! – they attacked.”
ISRAEL NEEDS NATIONAL UNITY MORE THAN EVER, BENNETT SAYS
Bennett said: “What we need to fix in Israel, in order to prevail, is precisely that: We have to unite.”
“I’m a right-of-center guy. My opinions are very firm. I oppose land concessions. I oppose a Palestinian state.”
“However, I believe that we have to form a unity government, a bipartisan government, with people who think very differently about stuff. And it can work.”
“The government that I formed was a very diverse government. We had left and right, religious, secular, we even added an Arab party.”
“Even my harshest opponents say, ‘He betrayed us, he did this, he’s a traitor — but, he ran a pretty darn good government because it was an effective government.’”
“I am convinced that the only way forward for the State of Israel the next decade is unity. When we’re strong from within, we can prevail.”
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett with Joel and Lynn Rosenberg at the Epicenter Briefing (Photo: Patrick Wright, TJF staff)
BENNETT THANKS EVANGELICALS FOR STANDING WITH ISRAEL
The former prime minister warmly thanked Evangelical Christians for standing with Israel and the Jewish people.
Bennett said Israel needs to do more to strengthen its strategic alliance with Christians in the U.S. and around the world.
He also said he personally wants to do more to build close ties with pro-Israel Evangelicals.
That’s why he has done several interviews with me on THE ROSENBERG REPORT on TBN, the most-watched Christian TV network in the United States.
That’s why he accepted my invitation to be the keynote speaker at this year’s Epicenter Briefing.
And why he plans to speak at Liberty University, the largest Christian university in the world, on Nov. 1 in Lynchburg, Virginia.
“As a man of faith, I deeply appreciate and respect the great love Israel is getting from hundreds of millions of Evangelicals,” Bennett told me when I interviewed him for TBN in May.
“It means a lot. The love that you show to the Jewish state matters. Come to Israel, speak up. Don’t let anyone talk bad about the Jewish state.”
