In the battle between good and evil, “Israel is a force of good in this world,” said Minister of Education Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home).
Speaking to a select group of Christian media broadcasters, publishers, journalists and communicators, Bennett said, “There is one Jewish nation with 6.5 million Jews and this same state is surrounded by hundreds of millions of radical Islamists that want to annihilate us and you. Israel is at the forefront of the battle between the free world and radical Islam.
“They are trying to annihilate us…We will prevail.”
The journalists are in Israel on four-day intensive study mission sponsored by the Government Press Office, the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage.
“If Israel were a share, I would buy,” said Bennett, who provided the press with his personal history.
Bennett, raised by American parents in Israel, spent his early career in high-tech, as the co-founder and owner of the US company Cyota. The company, which focuses on online banking fraud, e-commerce fraud, and phishing, sold for $145 million in 2005, just before the second Lebanon War.
Within months of becoming very wealthy, Bennett was “called in to defend my country. That was the inflection point in my life.” He served as an IDF commander in Lebanon during the war.
The minister’s realization that “these guys want to kill us…Whatever we do, they want to annihilate the Jewish people,” led him into politics and ultimately to rejuvenate the Religious Zionist party, which he renamed Jewish Home. His goal was to restore the Jewish state through stronger Jewish and Zionist values.
Bennett took the party from a dwindling three seats in the Knesset to 12 out of 120 in 2013. Today, Jewish Home is the third largest party in the Knesset.
He said Jewish Home is right-wing in the sense that, “I vehemently oppose handing over any more Jewish land to Arabs – period.” Bennett said he is not opposed to peace, but the way to achieve peace is by strengthening Israel.
“I would say all of Israel is moving rightward…because we are realistic,” said Bennett. “Our environment is probably the toughest environment on the globe.”
In the north, Israel faces Hezbollah, a terrorist organization harboring 130,000 rockets all pointed toward the Jewish State. Along the Syrian border, Iran is trying to take hold. Down south, ISIS has established a presence; the terror group shot several rockets into Israel this week. And in Gaza, there is Hamas.
He said people are beginning to understand the Middle East conflict is not the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, “but a bunch of radical Islamist who want to take over the world and want to build a radical Islamist empire from Tehran to Iraq to Syria to the Mediterranean….It’s tough, but we are good.”
Bennett asked the audience to picture a time machine in the room that transported the audience back 3,000 years to the time of King David. Bennett noted that he and the king would be able to communicate because they both speak Hebrew – the language of the Jewish people.
“We are direct descendants of David,” Bennett said. “My son is called David and Jonathan, Michal and Avigael are his siblings. My brothers are Asher and Dan. My dad is Jacob and my mom is Leah. There is a theme here.”
He continued, “It is remarkable that we have renewed the Jewish state. This is our third time. There is not going to be another chance. We cannot blow it.”
