Backing public transit on Shabbat, Bennett steers campaign into jammed center lane |
This week, former prime minister Naftali Bennett came out in favor of public transportation on Shabbat, and civil marriage.
For Bennett, the former political face of the socially conservative national-religious community, the announcements were the latest to underline what appears to be his ongoing move toward the center as he mounts a political comeback ahead of this year’s elections.
Speaking with Army Radio, Bennett declared that “cities must be allowed to choose if they want public transportation on Shabbat” and that “every person in Israel should be able to bring their love to fruition in this country and not travel abroad.”
At present, public transit is officially banned on Shabbat in nearly all Israeli cities, and Israelis who want a non-Orthodox Jewish wedding must tie the knot abroad, since the Chief Rabbinate holds a state monopoly on matrimony in Israel.
“My compass in this matter is common sense and fairness,” Bennett said.
Both issues are likely to resonate with a liberal, progressive audience that may have formerly viewed Bennett as anathema, even if they may alienate the religious conservatives he formerly counted as his voters.
His comments were immediately condemned by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which accused him of being “ready to trade away the country’s Jewish identity” for political gain, and argued that he would, in the end, also turn his back on his other long-held positions, such as support for West Bank settlements.
But they were welcomed on the other side of the aisle. Yair Golan, chair of the left-wing Democrats party, noted that Bennett had “come a long way” from his days as leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party.
Bennett’s political career — he also headed the New Right and Yamina parties –was long associated with the hawkish, pro-settler and nationalist ideological space now occupied by far-right Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich.
But his political horizons were transformed in 2021 when he managed to bargain his way to the top of an extremely wide coalition cobbled together by Yesh Atid party head Yair Lapid, ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the premiership.
Spanning from Bennett on the right to Meretz on the left and including the Arab Ra’am party, the coalition left many of Bennett’s voters feeling betrayed by his decision to lock hands with those from across the aisle. That rift was exploited by the then-opposition Likud to help bring down the so-called “change coalition” after a year.
But his time in power also made him a viable choice for voters far from Bennett’s traditional base, especially those opposed to Netanyahu. Out of office since the 2022 election, Bennett is currently polling as Netanyahu’s leading challenger and his nascent party has consistently been projected to receive the most votes of any anti-Netanyahu faction in October’s vote, and the second-most overall.
The path back to the prime minister’s office is not simple, though. On the right, Bennett presented voters with the value proposition of a right-wing stalwart bringing the movement into alignment with Israel’s high-tech future. By turning toward the center, Bennett may widen his appeal to a much larger swath of voters, but it will also put him in direct competition with a crowded field of other anti-Netanyahu consensus builders.
Bennett “is aiming for the positions of the majority of the public,” said........