Yair Bennett, chairman of Yachad, presented his new plan, called “New Deal,” on Tuesday morning as a blueprint to fix what he described as the root problems facing Israel. He said that over the past two years his team worked with leading experts to build reforms for the country’s deepest structural failures.
In education, Bennett said children should receive public schooling at the level of a private school. He said the state currently spends about NIS 50,000 per child on average, calling that the cost of private education without private-school quality. He vowed to shut what he called the “1948 Ministry of Education” and open a “2026 Ministry of Education,” while cutting bureaucracy and channeling money to children, classrooms, and teachers.
Bennett also promised to end funding for ultra-Orthodox education, which he said harms the state, and to provide an alternative. He said Israel is on a “slow-motion suicide” path in its treatment of the ultra-Orthodox public, arguing that “an independent and anti-Zionist Haredi state” has grown inside Israel with state financing.
On the economy, he pledged a “war of annihilation” against food cartels and accused foreign actors, including China’s Bright Food, which owns Tnuva, of driving price increases. He said he would tell Tnuva, Shufersal, Unilever, Diplomart and others that “the party is over” on his first day in office.
Bennett said organized crime should be treated as a national security threat, not merely a criminal issue, and that he would convene the security cabinet with the IDF chief, Shin Bet head and all law-enforcement arms to act “the Al Capone way.” He also promised to recruit 20,000 more soldiers, close seven government ministries, reduce political appointments, strengthen local authorities, end Israel’s isolation through regional alliances, and create a national public diplomacy body he called “8300.”
