Bennett Warns Israel Has ‘Lost the World’ as He Mounts Electoral Challenge to Netanyahu

Speaking at the Security Concept Conference organized by his B'Yachad party in Tel Aviv, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett issued a scathing critique of the current government, declaring that Israel has reached an unprecedented low point in its international standing.

"We’ve lost the United States, we’ve lost the world,"

Bennett stated.

"We are at the most terrible low point of Israel’s standing in the world since the founding of the state."

His remarks, which were published on his official YouTube channel, explicitly targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. Bennett argued that the current administration

"does not know how to win anywhere"

and accused it of leaving the country vulnerable to foreign influence campaigns due to a lack of effective counter-messaging institutions.

The speech comes amid heightened global criticism and growing diplomatic isolation surrounding Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has resulted in tens of thousands of Palestinian casualties and widespread devastation.

Positioning himself as a primary challenger to Netanyahu in the upcoming parliamentary elections, Bennett outlined an alternative doctrine. His proposal combines a hardline military posture against regional actors like Iran with a diplomatic strategy to build alliances across the Middle East and Southeast Asia—specifically targeting normalization with Saudi Arabia and Indonesia while isolating countries such as Qatar and Turkey.