After just three months in office, Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has been named to Time Magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
The person chosen by time to write about Bennett was none other than Mansour Abbas, the leader of the Joint Arab List party. That party was needed for Naftali Bennett to form a coalition government but supports it from the outside.
Abbas wrote about how Bennett made history by including an Arab party in his government.
Abbas said of Bennett, “Naftali Bennett threw himself into a political firestorm in order to forge previously unimaginable ties between Israel’s left and right, Arabs and Jews, religious and secular. He formed one of the most diverse governments in Israel’s history.”
Abbas also said that he was surprised by how the Israeli Prime Minister insisted that their meetings be held in the open, with cameras allowed to take pictures. Abbas said that in the past he had to meet with Israeli leaders behind the scenes.
“It wasn’t just the flash of the cameras that lit up the room at that moment, but the hope for a brighter future for us all,” said Abbas.
TPS