How Naftali Bennett differed from Netanyahu in his first UN speech

• Published date: 28 September 2021
• Author: RON KAMPEAS/JTA

Bennett launched his speech Monday morning with a plea to see Israel not as forever entrenched in warfare, but as a contributing member of the international community.

Israel, Bennett said at the outset, "is a beacon of democracy, diverse by design, innovative by nature and eager to contribute to the world."

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"For way too long, Israel was defined by wars with our neighbors," Bennett said. "But this is not what Israel is about. This is not what the people of Israel are about."

Since his installation in June after a close election in March, Bennett has sought to distinguish his government from those led for 12 years by Benjamin Netanyahu, whose main focus in foreign policy was confronting and containing Iran, at the expense of good relations with a number of countries, and with Democrats in the United States.

Bennett has so far made it a mission to restore those relations. Speaking English with the same fluency Netanyahu commanded, he devoted the first half of his speech to working with the international community to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

It was a sharp contrast with speeches by Netanyahu to the same body, which were almost entirely fire and brimstone warnings about the dangers Iran posed, often accompanied by visual aids.

Bennett put the battle against the disease in the context of political polarization, which has fueled vaccine hesitancy.

"In a polarized world, where algorithms fuel our anger, people on the right and on the left operate in two separate realities, each in their...