Israel ‘not a client state’ of US, former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett says

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Thursday said that Israel is not a client state of the US and demanded the immediate publication of all commitments that were made "behind the backs of Israeli citizens," local media have reported.  

Times of Israel reported that Bennett criticised the ceasefire arrangements in Gaza, referring to them as “Oslo on steroids”. 

“How did we get to a situation in which our troops need to OK Israeli movements with the American command in Kiryat Gat?” Bennett said in a statement. 

“Transferring control over our fate to Qatar, which funds Hamas, is Oslo on steroids,” he added. 

Bennett, who briefly replaced Netanyahu in 2021, is widely viewed as his strongest rival in next year’s elections.

Throughout most of his political career, Bennett was a right-wing ally of Netanyahu and a vocal critic of the Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian Authority and granted it limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank.