06/20/2021
Naftali Bennett was sworn in as Israel’s prime minister last week, ending 12 years of government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. While the coalition that makes up the government is extremely diverse politically, Bennett said that “We will forge forward on that which we agree–and there is much we agree on, transport, education and so on, and what separates us we will leave to the side.” Throughout his personal and political life, Bennett has faced many challenges, and has spoken of one particular problem that he solved creatively, noting that “I had to improvise. So we MacGyvered it.” The term “MacGyvered” refers to the MacGyver television show whose eponymous lead character routinely jerry-rigged solutions to problems he was confronted with. What was Bennett referring to when he said “we MacGyvered it”?
Israel Bilat by U.S. Secretary of Defense is licensed under CC BY 2.0
A. In 1999, prior to entering politics, Bennett founded and led a United States-based technology company called Cyota, which focused on anti-fraud efforts in the banking and e-commerce industries. “We didn’t really know what we were doing,” Bennett said. “We didn’t even know what we wanted to do. But President Clinton had just signed the Financial Services Modernization Act, which basically allowed commercial and investment banks to merge. I had a Compaq computer and my partner had one of the first iBook laptops. We knew the banks had to seriously upgrade their security for this change, so we just hammered something out. I had to improvise. So we MacGyvered it. Luckily we were in the right place at the right time.”
B. Bennett was actually referring to his recent negotiations with Yair Lapid, head of Israel’s Yesh Atid party. Lapid, who had been tasked with forming a new government, did not have enough votes to form a government with the parties that were ideologically aligned with his. When he first reached out to Bennett, Bennett did not even agree to speak with him given their vastly different political views. But they ultimately met and agreed on the unlikely linking of their parties for the purpose of ousting Bibi Netanyahu. Said Bennett, “We looked at our options, we looked at the policies we could agree on, we recognized that there was just no meeting of the minds. But, we had to get rid of Bibi. I had to improvise. So we MacGyvered it and put together this crazy coalition.”
C. Bennett served as an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces during Operation Grapes of Wrath, a 1996 incursion into Lebanon by the Israeli Defense Forces to end rocket attacks launched by Hezbollah. During the military action, Bennett radioed for air support when his unit came under mortar fire, and the resulting Israeli air strikes hit a United Nations compound, resulting in the death of over a hundred Lebanese civilians. Bennett was accused of using “poor judgment” during the operation, to which he responded, “I had to make an immediate decision on the ground, with the tools and options I had. I had to improvise. So we MacGyvered it. The tragic ending was not my fault.”
D. Referring to his military training in the Israeli Defense Forces, Bennett spoke of the time his unit was training for covert operations. They were left in the Negev Desert and expected to survive for a week without any food and with minimal equipment and supplies (including no weapons except pocketknives). The troops came upon some wild gazelles and decided to kill some for food. But Bennett, who was the only observant Jew in the unit, did not want to eat the animal if it wasn’t properly slaughtered. So he and some other soldiers trapped a gazelle, and Bennett, using his pocketknife, performed a ritual slaughter of the animal as best as he could. Said Bennett, “I’m not sure my rabbi would have considered the animal kosher, but I had to improvise. So we MacGyvered it.”
E. Bennett was referencing the time that he used chewing gum to hold his kippah (yarmulke) onto his bald head when delivering a speech outdoors on a windy day.
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