Short answer: Yes. Naftali Bennett, Israel's former Prime Minister (2021-2022), is a religious Zionist, IDF combat veteran, and lifelong Israeli political figure who continues to advocate for Israel from the political center-right. He is alive and currently building a new political alliance to run in Israel's 2026 election. As of August 2026, this is the record.
What Naftali Bennett has actually said and done
1990-1996: Bennett served in the IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal unit, then transferred to the Maglan commando unit, where he became a company commander. He later served in reserves through the First Intifada and in the Israeli security zone in Lebanon, reaching the rank of major, according to Haaretz.
June 2021: Bennett became Israel's first religiously observant, kippah-wearing Prime Minister, heading a broad unity coalition, as reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
April 1, 2025: Bennett formally registered a new political party under the provisional name "Bennett 2026" ahead of Israel's next election, signaling a return from his post-premiership hiatus, according to the Times of Israel.
October 2025 (around the two-year anniversary of October 7): Bennett posted on X that "the facts of the past two years are clear to any decent person," describing how thousands of Hamas terrorists attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing, raping, and murdering civilians, while also urging a comprehensive deal to bring home the hostages who remained in captivity at that time. The post is on his X account. Separately, in a June 2025 Channel 12 interview, his first with Israeli media in years, he urged a hostage deal and criticized the government's Gaza war policy, per the Times of Israel.
April 26, 2026: Bennett and fellow former Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced from the Dan Accadia Hotel in Herzliya that they would run on a unified list called "Together, led by Bennett" against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett called the alliance "the most Zionist and patriotic act we have ever done," per the Times of Israel.
April 27, 2026: Haaretz reported that Bennett's 2026 platform opposes creation of a Palestinian state and that he has said any coalition he leads "must be Zionist," meaning he would exclude Arab parties, a shift from his 2021 government, which had included the Islamist Ra'am party. Details are in Haaretz.
Context: who Naftali Bennett is
Naftali Bennett is a lifelong Israeli figure whose public identity is inseparable from Israel and Jewish religious observance. Before politics, he served as a company commander in two of the IDF's most elite units, Sayeret Matkal and then Maglan, and continued reserve service afterward, including duty during the First Intifada and in the security zone in Lebanon. He became Israel's first kippah-wearing, Modern Orthodox Prime Minister in June 2021, heading a broad unity government (2021-2022) that, for the first time, included an Arab Islamist party, Ra'am, alongside right-wing, centrist, and left-wing partners.
After leaving office, he largely stepped back from politics but returned publicly and vocally around the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and its aftermath, repeatedly commenting on the war, hostage negotiations, and government accountability. That chapter has since closed: the last living hostages returned home under the October 2025 ceasefire, and the remains of the final hostage, Ran Gvili, were repatriated in January 2026.
In 2025 and 2026, Bennett re-entered active politics, registering a new party in April 2025 and then, in April 2026, joining forces with former Prime Minister Yair Lapid to form a unified electoral list, "Together," aimed at unseating Netanyahu in Israel's next election. Reporting from that period describes Bennett's current platform as opposing a Palestinian state and insisting any coalition he leads be "Zionist" only, a further move rightward from the coalition composition of his own 2021-2022 government.
The bottom line
Naftali Bennett supports Israel. He is an IDF combat veteran, a religiously observant Jew who was Israel's first kippah-wearing Prime Minister, and he remains actively engaged in Israeli public life, currently leading a new political alliance aimed at forming Israel's next government. His current platform opposes Palestinian statehood and calls for a "Zionist-only" coalition, a further rightward turn from even his own 2021-2022 government.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
