“We have come to work,” promised Bennett. “To remove the barriers, to free up the jams, and to turn our country into what it can be.”

new prime minister naftali bennett unveils his work plan for israel

“The new government will be a government which strives for real, practical solutions to the problems faced by the country and its citizens,” newly minted Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett bravely told the assembled members of the Knesset this week, as loud booing chorused back at him.

“The work-plan which we are presenting today is the most detailed in years,” the Prime Minster said, undaunted. “We have come to work. To remove the barriers, to free up the jams, and to turn our country into what it can be.”

In unveiling his detailed “Work-Plan” so soon after assuming office, Naftali Bennett is giving his critics plenty of fodder with which to criticize him. His detractors, not least of whom is former-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are taking aim already.

From education to national security, Bennett’s Work-Plan is a comprehensive one, not to mention ambitious.

As follows, are “some of the things the government will promote immediately”, according to Naftali Bennett:

Social Services/Community Building

  • “We will take responsibility for the education of Israeli children from birth. The most formative years. As a first step, we will transfer responsibility for infant daycare to the Ministry of Education.”
  • “We will increase income support for the elderly to 70% of the minimum wage.”
  • “We will — finally — promote a national plan for the North of Israel, including establishing a hospital and a university in the Galilee.”
  • “We will work to upgrade Israel’s public transport system, led by Transport Minister-designate Merav Michaeli.”
  • “We will strengthen the building of communities across the Land of Israel.”
  • “We will ensure Israel’s national interests in Area C — and we will increase standards to that end after much neglect in this area.”
  • “The government will work to promote Jewish immigration to Israel, and the best integration for them.”
  • “We will strengthen the bond between the State of Israel, and the Jews of the Diaspora. We will care for our brothers and sisters around the world, we will fight against the wave of antisemitism.”

Concessions for the Ultra-Orthodox

  • “We will enable many ultra-Orthodox youth to go out to work by lowering the exemption age from 24 to 21. Not by force, but by positive encouragement, allowing young people who want to learn a vocation to be able to, and those who want to study Torah will continue to do so.”
  • “We will open up competition in Kashrut [kosher certification], and set standards for the system. This will lighten the burden on restaurant owners, ending the stranglehold monopoly in this area, bringing down the cost of food, and strengthening the public’s faith in the level of Kashrut.”

Government Reorganization

  • “We will close with immediate effect the Ministry of Digital Affairs, the Ministry for Water, the Ministry for Communal Advancement, and the Ministry for Strategic Affairs.”
  • “Foreign Minister-designate and Alternate Prime Minister-designate, Yair Lapid, will lead a process to rehabilitate the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is a fundamental tool for building Israel’s political strength.”
  • “Justice Minister-designate Gideon Saar will lead a process to create an appropriate balance between the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government, whereby his initiative to split the role of the Attorney General is a significant first step.”

COVID-19/Post-Covid

  • “Finance Minister-designate Avigdor Lieberman will lead a plan by which we will return to work those who lost their employment due to COVID-19.”
  • “Health Minister-designate Nitzan Horowitz will prepare the health system for a new age of community, and home based medical care, and together we will prepare an emergency plan in the case of future pandemics.”
  • “You can’t always know there will be a vaccine, not every illness has a vaccine, and you have to be prepared to build on vaccinations, but also on an organized plan and not as we saw in the last year.”

Pro-Business/Tech Industry Growth

  • “We will bring in as many people as possible in the high-tech industry, where there are higher salaries, by setting a national target of raising the number of high-tech workers to 15% of the workforce by 2026.”
  • “We will reduce superfluous regulation and frustrating bureaucracy, and we will work for citizen-friendly government services, as in Singapore among other countries — without paperwork, without queues.”
  • “We will make life easier for independent workers and small business owners, including through unemployment benefits.”

National Security

  • “We will safeguard the State of Israel, the nation state of the Jewish people, as a Jewish and democratic state.”
  • “Defense Minister Benny Gantz will lead a process to significantly strengthen and build up the IDF through a multi-year plan, which will include significant investment in offensive and defensive capabilities.”
  • “We must invest because the threats will not leave us. Our soldiers deserve the best and most advanced equipment in the world.”

Arab-Israelis

  • “We will open a new page in the relations between the State of Israel and the country’s Arab citizens.”
  • “The Arab community will be represented in the coalition by Mansour Abbas and his party.”
  • “We understand the plight and needs of the Arab society. The fight against crime and violence, the housing crisis, the gaps in education and infrastructure — will be addressed.”
  • “We will begin the process of regulating the Bedouin settlements in the Negev, so that Israel’s Bedouin citizens can live in dignity.”

Home Ownership

  • “We will accelerate the pace of building homes in Israel. The government will take the initiative, remove obstacles, and allow for extensive construction throughout the country.”
  • “There has been a slowdown in the building of houses in the last year — we should be seeing the opposite — we should have increased the building, there is a deficit in housing which drives up the prices, and no propaganda will hide that.”
  • “Therefore we will up the pace of building to put the brakes on the rise in prices, and allow young people [opportunities for home ownership] — who serve in the army, fulfill reserve duty, pay their taxes, and have no chance of building a house.”

“And that is just part of our plans,” PM Bennett concluded. “As I said, we have come to work!”

Though his plans are certainly ambitious, Bennett’s government is one of the weakest ever formed. His margins are so thin, his government is populated by Joe Manchins, any of whom could disrupt Bennett’s agenda.

As others have noted, anything likely to be controversial will have to wait for a stronger majority. And considering the diversity of Bennett’s new government, many things included in the work-plan might be considered controversial in the coming months.

(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)