New prime minister of Israel has Bay Area roots

He has urged all Israelis to watch a gripping political thriller about the history of the Jews. It’s an animated epic depicting a Jewish civil war 2000 years ago and the Roman destruction of the Second Temple as a result. It is seen as a warning in a deeply divided country. Bennett, a right-winger, urged lawmakers to see the film during a stormy session of Parliament. Issac Herzog, the more liberal president of Israel agreed and said every child in Israel should see it. The epic, “Legend of Destruction,” is a cautionary tale about the dangers of polarization and how it makes the country vulnerable to attack from the outside.

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Naftali’s parents, Myrna and Jim, were born and raised in San Francisco. They went to Lowell High School and the University of California, Berkeley. They were not especially religious and were typical liberal Cal students engaging in protests. After Israel became independent, they were part of the euphoria which inspired so many to move to this new country.

In 1967, when they settled in Haifa, Israel, Myrna and Jim changed. They became orthodox Jews and their politics conservative. It was under this setting that Bennett, their third and youngest son was born in 1972. Myrna and Jim maintained their extensive network of second, third and fourth cousins with a long standing legacy in San Francisco and a history of liberalism. At one point, Bennett’s mom wanted to return to San Francisco and the family did for a short time in 1973. It was a hard life raising a family in this new rugged country. Then the Yom Kippur War started in October of that year. Jim rushed back to Israel to join the army. The family returned after the war. And there they remained.

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“Perhaps his relentless commitment to ensure that the Jewish people as a nation survive and thrive in Israel can be traced to his parents’ remarkable choices,” wrote one of his cousins. “Jim and Myrna were both raised in secular households by parents living in the U.S. For their parents, being Jewish was an ethnocultural heritage to be prized. But for Bennett’s parents this changed once in Israel. Thereby they changed the history of a family and likely its people.”

Bennett became prime minister in June 2021 after many efforts to form a government in a politically divided country. He agreed to run a coalition government which included several factions and to turn over the reins to the more liberal Yair Lapid in 2025. Most importantly, he agreed to include the Arab Party in the new coalition of eight political parties now governing the country and not to build more settlements while PM. It’s the first time the Arab Party has been included in the Israeli government. His American cousins believe Bennett is also a man of maturing flexibility. We will have to see if this is indeed true but so far there are grounds for optimism, but we can’t forget he is deeply religious and nationalistic which puts him on the more conservative side of Israeli politics.

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Early in life Bennett served in the Israeli Defense Force in a special forces command unit. He became a company commander. In civilian life, he received a law degree from Hebrew University. He became a successful entrepreneur and founded an anti-fraud software company. The company was sold for great gain which has made him independently wealthy. He then became focused on Israeli politics in 2006. He served as chief of staff to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Then was elected to the Knesset. He started a new party, Jewish Home.

“My cousin is firm and resolute in his convictions. That does not mean he is inflexible. He has been willing to work in a coalition, he has married a secular woman, he has shared leadership with a woman of another party. He seeks the better for all not the perfect for him.” Let’s hope this is true. It will be a boon for Israel, the United States and world peace. 

Sue Lempert is the former mayor of San Mateo. Her column runs every Monday. She can be reached at sue@smdailyjournal.com.