Former Israeli Premier Bennett says Israel has ‘lost US, world’

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel has “lost the United States” and the wider world, warning that the country’s international standing has reached an unprecedented low.

Speaking at Israel’s Security Concept Conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Bennett said: “We’ve lost the United States, we’ve lost the world.”

His remarks were carried on Bennett’s official YouTube channel.

“We are at the most terrible low point of Israel’s standing in the world since the founding of the state,” he added.

Bennett accused the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to achieve victories on multiple fronts.

“The Netanyahu government does not know how to win anywhere — not in Gaza, not in Lebanon. They are not winning anywhere,” he said.

The former premier also argued that Israel lacks an effective institution to counter what he described as influence campaigns targeting the country.

Bennett has emerged as a prominent challenger to Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s parliamentary elections, repeatedly criticizing the government’s management of the Gaza war and its handling of relations with Israel’s allies.

Israel has faced growing international criticism and isolation over its war on the Gaza Strip, where its army has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, displaced most of the population and devastated large parts of the enclave since October 2023.