Naftali Bennett, former Prime Minister of Israel, stated that for the first time since the establishment of the state in 1948, Israel’s brand in the United States has become completely negative. Speaking at the JNS International Policy Conference in occupied Jerusalem, he described the situation as a \u201cdisaster\u201d and said restoring the lost credibility is a difficult responsibility for the current cabinet.<\/p>\n
Bennett directly criticized the performance of Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, emphasizing that relations with the US are vital for Israel and that declining public support in America could have serious political and diplomatic consequences. He added that Israel\u2019s public image in the US has reached its lowest point.<\/p>\n
The former Israeli Prime Minister also accused some current cabinet members, including Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Minister of Public Security, of making “irresponsible” remarks. Bennett considered these positions detrimental to Israel\u2019s public diplomacy and said such behavior weakens the regime’s political capital. He stated, “If Israel were a public relations firm, we would not hire ourselves.”<\/p>\n
Bennett further criticized restrictions placed on Israeli military forces in the Lebanon front, saying soldiers should not be prohibited from firing upon observing a threat. He called this approach \u201cdisastrous\u201d and called for broader rights to self-defense.<\/p>\n
In another part of his remarks, Bennett made claims about the future of Iran\u2019s Islamic Republic, describing it as a “worn-out and dysfunctional” structure. He predicted the regime will collapse in the future, although he did not specify a timeline. Bennett urged the international community to adopt a coordinated approach toward Iran. These statements come amid ongoing sensitivities in regional and international affairs concerning Iran.<\/p>\n
Bennett also confirmed that during his premiership, there was a plan to transfer tens of thousands of Starlink receivers into Iran. According to him, the aim of the program was to provide internet access during network shutdowns, but the current Israeli cabinet has halted the initiative.<\/p>\n
Bennett\u2019s harsh remarks highlight deep political divisions within Israel; divisions that, amid internal pressures and international criticism of Netanyahu\u2019s government, have become increasingly pronounced and cast a shadow over the regime\u2019s foreign policy future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett warns Israel’s image in the US is at its lowest, criticizing Netanyahu’s government and Iran policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}