Former prime minister and the current head of the B’Yachad party Naftali Bennett denounced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “anarchist” whose toxic campaigning could put main rival Gadi Eisenkot in physical danger ahead of the October 27 election.

Bennett made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with Channel 12 broadcast on Saturday that accompanies the release of a new book by journalist Ari Shavit, titled “Bennett: Hour of Truth,” based on dozens of conversations between the two.

Bennett, a right-wing former Netanyahu ally who unseated the longtime premier to create his so-called “change government” with centrist, left-wing and Arab parties in 2021-2022, alleged that a pro-Netanyahu “poison machine” — including the Likud campaigns and a network of pro-Netanyahu media and social media outlets, headed by the Channel 14 network — has since created a false image of him as power-hungry and obsessive for the post of prime minister, arguing that his real motive is to save the country.

In recent months, Bennett’s alliance with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid has gradually lost ground in opinion polls, with the centrist Yashar party chief Eisenkot becoming the main rival to Netanyahu.

“I’m running for prime minister, with by far the most experience [in the anti-Netanyahu bloc],” Bennett told Channel 12, while adding: “I will do anything that guarantees victory for the bloc. One minute after the election we will go into a room, Gadi, [Yisrael Beytenu party head Avigdor Liberman] and the whole bloc, and we will exit with a single candidate. I won’t do anything that endangers the replacement of the government, and if I need to be in the most junior position in the world — so be it.”

Bennett also recounted the 2021 handover meeting with Netanyahu upon becoming prime minister, which lasted just 30 minutes.

“It was pretty amazing. I arrived prepared for a serious handover; I cleared my whole day for it,” he said.

In the book, Bennett says Netanyahu looked “pitiful, uptight, frayed, grumpy.”

He told the network that while Netanyahu mumbled and didn’t volunteer information about diplomatic and security matters, signaling he just wanted to end the meeting and declining to wish him luck, he did request to stay at the prime minister’s residence for a few months — which Bennett refused — and for his wife Sara to continue........

© The Times of Israel