22/08/2026
“What collapsed on October 7th wasn’t just our defensive lines opposite Gaza. On October 7th, an entire security concept collapsed. One which Netanyahu had instilled for years. And with it collapsed the worlds of thousands of families - the families of those murdered, kidnapped and injured, and of an entire nation. What is even worse is that even now, at this very moment, the political leadership still has the wrong concept. This week, I went down to the Gaza Envelope to meet with residents, community security coordinators and IDF observers. To listen and gather information. Because messages from worried residents are pouring in, and testimonies from those IDF observers who once again see the Nuhbot training before their eyes are leaving me restless. So I went and spent the night in the Gaza Envelope - in Nahal Oz - heading into the field as usual. And I can say: The October 7th government is still captive to the security concepts of October 6th. They did not wake up on October 7th. We will lead Israel towards a new security concept. National security is not just our army. It consists of military power, economic power, diplomatic power and internal power.
The first element - military power. We will replace the containment and passivity of the Netanyahu era with initiative and decisiveness. “He who comes to kill you, kill him first.” In the previous government under my leadership, we changed the equation regarding Gaza. After tens of thousands of rockets and incendiary balloons that Netanyahu governments tried to contain- we crushed them over a single balloon. We brought the communities of the south the quietest year seen in years. We didn’t let terrorists approach the fence, we pursued them. In Nahal Oz this week, residents told me that they miss our government's policy. This time we will do it faster and stronger.
We need an army that takes initiative, and we need a large army. It is not possible for the IDF to be short 20,000 soldiers while 100,000 healthy young ultra-Orthodox men are not serving. In the next government under my leadership, we will draft everyone. Without exemptions and without shady deals. As soon as we begin with ideas like a 30% exemption, committees and outlines- we’ve been there before and we know from experience exactly how it will end. With nothing. Another time going in circles at the expense of the naive politician on duty, and without a single ultra-Orthodox Israeli enlisting.
Under us, everyone will enlist, without exemptions, and instead of a small and smart army - we will build a large, lethal army that takes initiative.
There is another historical change occurring that many have not yet internalized. AI is the weapon of the future. In the not-so-distant future, AI capabilities will be more important than even nuclear weapons. Artificial intelligence is the next superpowers’ arms race, and despite the current government lagging behind over the past four years, we will not let Israel be left behind.
The second foundation of national security is a strong economy. It is impossible to maintain an air force that operates from Tehran to Yemen as well as with swarms of drones, autonomous combat systems, and advanced intelligence and cyber systems - without a strong economy to finance all of this. And without excellent education, there will be no excellent economy here. When a third of Israeli children starting first grade will not study English, math, and Zionism - we have no future. Who will create the next Iron Dome? In the next government, we will carry out a revolution in education.
To save the Zionist state, we will dismantle the ultra-Orthodox state. We will stop funding institutions that do not teach math, English, and Zionism. Whatever isn’t Zionist - won’t be at taxpayers’ expense! There will be one excellent state education system for all Israeli children, including our ultra-Orthodox brothers.
What has been - is not what will be. And for a strong economy, we must also keep Israeli hi-tech here. It is the engine of the Israeli economy. Listen to this crazy statistic. When I left office as Prime Minister, eight out of ten Israeli startups chose to register themselves here, in Israel. Today, the overwhelming majority of hi-tech companies choose to register in the United States. This is a disaster. We know how to bring them home. We have a plan that is ready for implementation from day one.
The third pillar of national security is diplomatic power. Today, decisions about our fate are being not with us at the table, but with us on the table. And even though we have the greatest friend we have ever had in the White House, we have lost America. We have lost the world. It is simply inconceivable that after 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered here in a pogrom, we are at the lowest point in our international standing since the founding of the state. Look, for the battle against Palestinian terrorism, we have the Shin Bet. Facing our enemies at the borders, we have the IDF. But in the all-important battle for global public opinion- who is in charge?
Nobody. We don't have an army for it, we don't have a chief of staff for it, we don't have anything. This front has been abandoned. In the next government, we will establish a national public diplomacy body that will be under the Prime Minister's Office - just as there is 8200 for intelligence, we will establish 8300 for public diplomacy. It will fight back against Qatar, Iran, and the haters of Israel.
In the new Middle East that is emerging before our eyes, there are not only threats - there are also huge opportunities. We will strengthen the Abraham Accords, restore the Negev Forum that was initiated by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, and bring about normalization with Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and other countries. We will build an alliance of moderate forces in the region against Iran, Qatar, Turkey, and radical forces. We will take action to shape the fate of the region instead of letting others shape it for us and having Netanyahu sign a finished document.
The last element is, in my opinion, the most important. Our inner strength.
Throughout the generations, our people has suffered from two serious problems. The first, which has been discussed many times before, is our failure to recognize threats on time. This was the case with the expulsion from Spain, pogroms, the Holocaust, the Yom Kippur War, and of course, the October 7th attacks.
The second problem is even more dangerous. It is the factionalism and civil conflict that is tearing our country apart from within. Twice in history, we have had an independent state here in this land - and twice it has been destroyed because of civil wars. “A house divided cannot stand.”
The Netanyahu government has torn Israeli society apart. In the run-up to October 7th, our enemies saw this, saw us growing weaker, waited for our weakest moment and massacred us.
Everyone asks how despite the bravery of our soldiers for over a thousand days, this government has not managed to achieve a decisive outcome on any front. The answer is clear: leadership that tears its nation apart internally can never achieve victory externally. We will heal our beloved country and unite Israel under one flag.
I now want to shatter four dangerous flawed security concepts that our political leadership continues to hold onto.
The first is that Qatar is not a “complex country” - Qatar is an enemy. It financed the October 7th massacre and is now working to destroy us. It is not a “negative country” or a complex country - it is an enemy state. Whoever doesn’t understand this after October 7th isn’t worthy of leading Israel.
I am very troubled by the stuttering and hesitations that I hear on this topic, and I am troubled by the depth of Qatar's pe*******on into Israel. So long as we are unable to define our enemies, it is clear that we will not be able to defeat them. In the next government under my leadership, we will declare Qatar an enemy state, harness our security entities against it, and uproot its influence inside Israel.
I recognize the complexity of the United States having a large base in Qatar. But this is not related to the fact that we need to uproot them from within Israel - like we do with an enemy state that penetrates deeply into Israel and sends metastases to the most sensitive places for our security. If we do not define Qatar as an enemy, we cannot expect anything from our friends.
I also turn to Jewish communities around the world, to friends of Israel around the world: Qatar is an enemy. Cut your ties with Qatar.
The second flawed concept, on the Gaza front, is that the Board of Peace, Turkey, and Qatar - that they will protect the security of the residents of Gaza Envelope. Hamas should have been destroyed, and Netanyahu failed to achieve this supreme goal for the war which he himself defined. The Netanyahu government simply gave up, and decisions about our security are now being made not in Jerusalem, but in Doha, the capital of Qatar.
Hamas is once again in control of Gaza, it has more armed terrorists than it did on October 7th. It is rearming, and at this very moment, it is already training for the next massacre in front of our observation posts. Our soldiers are prohibited from targeting armed terrorists unless there is a direct threat to them. As if October 7th never happened.
In the next government headed by me, Israel, and no one else, will be responsible for the security of the people of Israel.
We will not move a millimeter from the Yellow Line until Hamas is completely disarmed and this weaponry is removed from Gaza. We will maintain security freedom of action throughout the Gaza Strip. We will remove Qatar and Turkey from Gaza and replace them with Egypt. Whoever allows Qatar and Turkey to run Gaza is preventing the dismantling of Hamas.
We will use our credit with the White House only for the benefit of Israel's security, and we will also know how to say "no" when necessary and stand up for Israel's security without compromise. Just as I did during the government I headed when I said no to President Biden on the issue of establishing an American consulate in East Jerusalem.
But it's not just Qatar and it's not just Gaza. Even in the face of the head of the octopus - Iran -
and its proxy Hezbollah, this government is once again stuck in the wrong conception. With the wrong equation.
Within the Netanyahu government and the security establishment, the equation has been established that if we shoot at Hezbollah - Iran will shoot at us. In the next government that I will lead, we will reverse that equation: If Hezbollah fires at us - we will fire at Iran. An attack by the arms of the Iranian octopus within Israel's borders will result in a price being paid within Iran's borders.
In the previous government under my leadership, we already began to implement this policy - we struck twice within Iran in response to their attacks through proxies. And we saw that this created a deterrent. In the next government, we will implement this policy with full force.
The essence of our strategy against Iran is very simple: to ensure that the regime falls before it goes nuclear. Therefore, on the one hand, we will prevent Iran from going nuclear. But that is not enough. On the other hand, we will work to accelerate the collapse of the Ayatollahs' regime using all the tools at our disposal. Not just bombs: political tools, economic tools, technological tools and consciousness tools. Like Reagan did to the Soviet Union in the 1980s. You see, the Iranian regime is rotten and hollow from within, and it will collapse. Our job is to help make that happen.
The last flawed security concept I will talk about now may surprise you, but it is a clear and imminent threat to Israel's security. There are about half a million illegal weapons circulating today within the borders of the State of Israel. This is an incomprehensible number. The flawed conception here is that the government treats this as a criminal problem, when it is in fact a security threat of the highest order. This is why they’ve done nothing about it. A security threat needs to be addressed with security tools. These weapons are flowing to terrorists in Judea and Samaria, and to crime families in the Negev and the north. This is a ticking time bomb. Here too, we will fundamentally change our approach. We will define arms smuggling as terrorism in every way. We will use the full power of the state - including the Shin Bet and the IDF. Wherever there is intelligence that there are weapons caches, we will declare that location a closed security zone, and we will clear our streets of illegal weapons so that they are not then aimed at Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs alike.
My brothers and sisters, leadership that after October 7th is still captive to dangerous flawed security conceptions- won’t be capable of delivering security for Israel. The next war will be won or lost not only on the battlefield, but also at the Technion’s Aeronautics Faculty. By the quality of our kindergartens. In the battle on campuses and in the public diplomacy realm around the world. By combating protection rackets in the south. By there being unity between the combat soldier from Eli and his friend from his squad from Ramat HaSharon. By equality in enlistment. By the families of our reservists and career soldiers knowing they’re not alone. We know what the problems are - and we know what must be done and exactly how to do it. The October 7th Government destroyed - the October 27th Government will repair. That’s our life’s mission.”
נפתלי בנט - Naftali Bennett presenting his national security vision at today’s special B’Yachad National Security Conference in Tel Aviv
