The government’s current conscription policies could lead to “national suicide," amid the IDF's manpower shortage, former prime minister Naftali Bennett told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, vowing to only form a government with those who serve and to restore Israel’s international standing if elected.
His party, Bennett 2026, has been trailing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud in recent polls ahead of elections expected no later than the end of October.
“Israel has no effective public diplomacy, and it’s unclear why. When I was prime minister, I established an excellent public diplomacy system. This government dismantled it. I will restore it in full force,” Bennett said.
Amid growing speculation about his potential coalition partners, Bennett outlined clear conditions for joining his government to the Post.
“The next government will be based on a ‘covenant of those who serve.’ Anyone who can be with me in a tank in Gaza can be with me in the government,” he said.
He added that he would not partner with haredi parties unless they agreed to his core principles.
“Anyone who opposes quality education, universal service, and the need to work without state funding cannot join.”
"I will return to running the country. My government will include religious and secular people, right and left, under my leadership," he said.
Bennett discusses haredi draft bill
Bennett also addressed Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth's Monday announcement that the controversial haredi conscription bill would be advanced again.
Critics claim the bill is political, aimed at appeasing haredi parties- Shas and United Torah Judaism - and would not significantly increase enlistment.
Bennett sharply criticized the government’s bill, warning of a potential security crisis the government could cause by continuing to advance the legislation.
“It’s a despicable plan,” he said. “On the one hand, they want to extend the mandatory service of IDF soldiers by four months, and on the other hand, they are advancing a law that, in practice, exempts the haredim from military service.
“What the government is doing now is national suicide. If we don’t change course, Israel will collapse economically, socially, and in terms of security,” Bennett warned.
“It’s unbelievable, we are heading toward national suicide with our eyes wide open.”
“The IDF needs 20,000 soldiers. We’ve created security zones in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and along the Jordanian border. Because these soldiers are missing, the entire burden falls on the same soldiers and reservists,” he explained.
“There are about 100,000, nearly 100,000, haredi young men of draft age. If only a fifth of them were drafted, it would solve the entire problem,” he said, vowing that in a government led by him, haredi conscription would be mandatory.
Since the start of the war, Bennett has led an extensive international media campaign advocating for Israel. He told the Post he fully supported the war and that the IDF needed more soldiers to maintain itself.
Addressing the 2026 state budget approved Sunday, which includes hundreds of millions of funding for haredi institutions, Bennett said such allocations would not continue under his leadership.
“In the next government, which will be a Zionist government, we will stop all these funds and instead offer the haredim service tracks, employment tracks, and state haredi schools that will be excellent, but we will completely stop funding unemployment, non-service, and education without core subjects or Zionism.”
Reflecting on his previous term as prime minister from 2021 to 2022, Bennett argued that his government delivered rapid results.
“In one year, we accomplished what others didn’t in four,” he said. “In our budget, we directed most of the money toward scientific education and value-based Zionist education.”
“Israel today is not being governed. Nothing is being managed, not transportation, which is a traffic catastrophe, not crime, which has doubled in murder rates compared to my time. Under me, it was about 150 murders a year; under them, it’s about 300,” he said.
He also criticized National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, saying he “is not managing anything, he’s just doing gimmicks. The economy isn’t managed. The cost of living is at a peak."
Addressing olim (new immigrants), Bennett said he strongly encourages aliyah.
“I’m so grateful that my late father and my mother, may she live a long life, chose to immigrate to Israel from the United States,” he said.
“Despite the rockets, despite the sirens, this is our home."
Bennett also expressed condolences after the IDF announced on Tuesday that four soldiers were killed in combat in Lebanon: Captain Noam Madmoni, Staff Sergeant Ben Cohen, Staff Sergeant Maxsim Entis, and Staff Sergeant Gilad Harel.
“They fought so that we could live in this country,” he said. “And as we enter the Passover Seder, when each of us tells our children the story of the Jewish people, in the Bennett family, we will also tell the story of one of these fighters.”
