What will Naftali Bennett do as Defense Minister? - analysis

Even if Bennett is just temporarily filling the role, there hasn’t been a full-time defense minister since Yisrael Beitenu chairman Avigdor Liberman quit in November 2018.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
New Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett (photo credit: ABIR SULTAN/POOL/VIA REUTERS)
New Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett
(photo credit: ABIR SULTAN/POOL/VIA REUTERS)
With less than two weeks before Blue and White leader Benny Gantz’s mandate to try to form a government is to end, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Naftali Bennett will be Israel’s next defense minister.
While Bennett may not have much time in his seat as defense minister on the 14th floor of the IDF Military Headquarters – he’s agreed that the role of defense minister will be filled by someone else in the next government – he will likely present a challenge for the military’s top brass.
Even if he’s just temporarily filling the role, there hasn’t been a full-time defense minister since Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman quit in November 2018.
Since IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi began his role in January of last year, he has never had to deal with someone sitting across the hall from him and working closely with him on a day-to-day basis.
And that’s not a small thing.
For almost a year, when Kochavi needed or wanted something, he had the prime minister. He didn’t have someone walking across that short hallway and knocking on his door whenever he needed or wanted something.
Kochavi will now have to sweat a bit in order to get things approved. Bennett is not the type of minister to rubber stamp every paper that comes across his desk.
Bennett goes against groupthink and he’s going to question and demand thorough answers for every request made by the military, which is currently unable to solve a critical problem with it’s new multi-year plan: its delayed defense budget.
In 2014, when the IAF was purchasing the F-35 stealth aircraft, it was Bennett as Minister of Economy, along with Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz and a few others, who opposed the air force requests. Netanyahu decided to delay the vote and Air Force commander at the time Amir Eshel came to meet personally with Bennett to try and convince him of the need to buy the aircraft. 
While he lifted his opposition, he didn't agree to the IDF's original plan to purchase a total of 31 jets in one batch. Instead, Israel staggered the deal, purchasing 14 jets in 2014 and the remaining 17 in 2017.
It was the first time in years that a defense purchase request wasn’t automatically approved.
While Bennett will not be able to resolve the defense budget in the short amount of time he has, he will want to exert as much influence as he can in the role he’s been wanting to have for years.
Not only will the military need him in the coming weeks to approve a list of senior appointments, he is stepping into the role at a time when Netanyahu and the defense establishment is screaming from on high and at every chance it can about the threat posed by Iran.
Iran, Iran, Iran.
And, if we are really facing an increased threat by the Islamic Republic, what will Bennett do? Will he follow the pack or will he stand his own ground and defy the establishment? Will he think outside the box like he did in 2014, pushing for a military operation against Hamas tunnels even as everyone else was against it?
But, with limited time as Israel’s defense minister, what really can he do?