--- description: Find out why Naftali Bennett is one of the 100 most influential people of 2021. title: Naftali Bennett: The 100 Most Influential People of 2021 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07aeb5261f375c04/698a1cb322fb85def1e2c860/naftali-bennett-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 14, 2021 # Naftali Bennett by Mansour Abbas  Naftali Bennett Amit Elkayam—The New York Times/Redux Naftali Bennett Amit Elkayam—The New York Times/ReduxAmit Elkayam—The New York Times/Redux In the end, it all comes down to courage. After four elections in two years, a bold act was needed to unite a country frayed by political stalemate and brought to a desperate standstill. Something dramatic needed to change, but more importantly, someone courageous needed to make that change. 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. “I don’t do things in the dark,” Bennett, who is now Prime Minister, told me in a meeting with him in the Knesset that he agreed to be made public. As the [leader of an Arab party](https://time.com/6073019/mansour-abbas-arab-israel-coalition-government/ "undefined"), I had become used to cameras being kept outside the room. “In a time of polarization and hate,” Bennett said, “the Israeli public needs unity.” 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. _Abbas is the leader of Israel’s United Arab List party_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6096021/naftali-bennett/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6096021/naftali-bennett/"},"headline":"Naftali Bennett","datePublished":"2021-09-14T15:32:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:15.179Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6096021/naftali-bennett/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","T100 2021"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07aeb5261f375c04/698a1cb322fb85def1e2c860/naftali-bennett-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07aeb5261f375c04/698a1cb322fb85def1e2c860/naftali-bennett-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6096021/naftali-bennett/","name":"Naftali Bennett"}}]}] ```