Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was featured by Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people for the year 2021.
Bennett joined US President Joe Biden, his predecessor Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle on the list.
The articles about everyone on the list were written by someone with a special connection to them.
Bennett’s was written by Ra’am (United Arab List) head Mansour Abbas.
“In the end, it all comes down to courage,” Abbas wrote. “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.”
Abbas wrote that 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 and formed one of the most diverse governments in Israel’s history.
He praised Bennett for including him in his governing coalition and recalled a meeting between them in the Knesset that he was surprised Bennett agreed to be made public.
“As the leader of an Arab party, I had become used to cameras being kept outside the room,” he wrote. “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.”