With a convert's zeal, PM takes a precarious perch among global elite in Glasgow

Even before Israel's first budget in over three years was passed, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his advisors left the Glasgow Climate Change Summit satisfied with their trip last week, and for good reason.

The Premier enjoyed a VIP dinner reception at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, where he discussed the importance of combating climate change with US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, about the importance by involving the youth of his country in the effort.

At the COP26 climate conference itself, Bennett met a number of world leaders who presented themselves as techno-optimists with great confidence in the innovation potential to solve the world's pressing problems. One advisor called the meeting a “diplomatic tsunami in the best sense of the word, rain of blessings”.

In fact, Bennett was something of a star and global leaders sought him out for advice on COVID-19 boosters and bans.

Perhaps the most exciting meeting was with Bill Gates, the multi-billion dollar philanthropist and investor in clean energy. Bennett seemed particularly pleased when Gates spoke about harnessing Israel's innovative spirit for clean energy and even referred to him as a co-entrepreneur.

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All in all, it seemed Bennett's wise decision to use Israel's success in fighting the coronavirus to shape it as a country that can find solutions to yet another global challenge of paying off.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, at a reception for COP26 world leaders in Glasgow, October 31, 2021 (GPO)

But in the midst of self-congratulations and slaps, danger lurks for the Prime Minister.

A conference like COP26, and his newfound zeal for the climate movement in general, poses significant risks for Bennett that he may need to monitor carefully before proceeding on the path he has chosen.

Good COP, bad COP

As important as it was for the Israeli head of state to be at the event - and it would certainly not have looked good if he had stayed away - the look of the COP26 was uncomfortable, even if Energy Minister Karine Elharrar was due to a lack of wheelchair access.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett attends the COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, with Energy Secretary Karine Elharrar, the day after she was unable to attend due to lack of accessibility (courtesy)

Last Sunday, the same day Bennett and his team took off on a charter flight to Glasgow, Israeli consumers were charged a tax that doubled the price of single-use plastic cutlery and dishes to wean the country off plastic waste. It will likely disproportionately affect the ultra-Orthodox, who have large families and spend less money on appliances like dishwashers.

While Bennett was in Scotland, fuel prices hit a three-year high in Israel, causing food prices to rise steadily. Israelis will be spared the far more dramatic rise in energy prices and the potential blackouts that Europe could face in winter thanks to Israel's offshore natural gas production - a fossil fuel - and the fact that Israel is far less reliant on renewable energy than Europe does .

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett board the plane at Ben Gurion Airport for the UN climate change summit in Glasgow on October 31, 2021. (Haim Zach / GPO)

At the VIP welcome event on Sunday evening hosted by Prince Charles, the conspicuously exposed world leaders and royals clutched their drinks and chatted amicably while staff and waiters floated in the background with firmly attached masks.

While Bennett and other world leaders pledged to cut CO2 emissions and warned of an impending climate emergency, they were joined by CEOs and movie stars who came to the climate summit in hundreds of private jets. Once in Scotland, their convoys - some of which comprised dozen of vehicles - emitted even more CO₂ into the atmosphere.

The Israeli team decided too late to attend the conference and were forced to find hotel rooms in Edinburgh, some 75 kilometers away. Twice a day, Bennett's motorcade of about ten vehicles - plus local police cars and motorcycles - made the journey between the two Scottish cities.

Aside from the very heavy use of fossil fuels to get to Scotland and get around within the country, the trip wasn't particularly environmentally friendly on the Israeli side either. There were no instructions from the Prime Minister for his staff to use public transport to and from the airport and they arrived in private cars and taxis.

Traffic jam on the Ayalon motorway, March 30, 2021. (Miriam Alster / FLASH90)

There is no question that traveling with non-environmentally friendly modes of transport has made logistics much more convenient. But fossil fuel use isn't just more convenient for billionaires and government officials. Israelis want to get to work as painlessly as possible and have a deep love for flying abroad to see the world.

When this government begins to urge - or force - Israelis to spend more time on buses and less vacations abroad for the sake of the environment, it could start looking at the decisions of the political and economic elite and asking some tough questions.

A modern religion

Bennett, Israel's first Orthodox prime minister, knows how strong man's religious impulse can be. Although many young people across the West are turning their backs on formal religion, there is still a strong pull on movements that guide their behavior through immutable moral laws, connecting them to seemingly strangers, and giving meaning to their actions by making them part an effort to save humanity.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks during a climate strike demonstration by Fridays for Future in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 22, 2021. (Photo by Erik SIMANDER / TT News Agency / AFP) / Sweden OUT

"If a religion is a system of human norms and values ​​based on belief in a superhuman order, then Soviet communism was no less a religion than Islam," writes Yuval Noah Harari in "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind". He mentions liberalism, capitalism, nationalism and Nazism as further examples of “new religions based on natural law” that have replaced traditional religions.

The modern climate movement can be added to this list. Like many God-centered beliefs, it divides the world into virtuous and sinners, preaches an apocalyptic vision of the end of mankind that the virtuous are trying to prevent, and has no place for heretics.

It even has its prophets, above all Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who has become the face of the climate movement with her thundering hate speech against world leaders.

Bennett and his team have spent the past two weeks doing a series of briefings on climate and appear to be real converts to the climate movement.

Young Israelis take part in a rally against fossil fuels in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on December 18, 2020. (Tomer Neuberg / Flash90)

But that zeal could blind them to the excesses of a huge movement trying to restructure the world economy and companies vying for a slice of a multi-trillion dollar cake.

The Prime Minister and his team would be well advised to take a critical look at a movement that has drawn as many profiteers, snake oil sellers and anti-capitalists as any other high profile global initiative. While many of the experts they encounter are thoroughly sincere and benevolent, Bennett's associates could be drawn in directions that are contrary to Israel's national needs and its own political interests if not vigilant.

From COVID to the climate

Bennett wants to make Israel's forests and rivers less polluted and to use the creativity and experience of Israelis to lead the world towards a cleaner future. It is an admirable goal that Israelis from across the political spectrum can achieve.

But on his Glasgow trip, there were signs that Bennett was being pushed away from his career path to date, amid the celebrities and the talk of the final chances for the world.

Even as Prime Minister, he upheld an appeal to the Man of the People, which came into its own when he was stuck with his entourage in Washington DC on Shabbat in August, indulging the assembled Israelis with words of the Torah before spending half an hour talking with the journalists in the dining room. Hobnobbing with billionaires and royals who fool ordinary working-class families about their lavish nature is a marked departure from this person.

New Right leader Ayelet Shaked (L) and Party No. 2. Naftali Bennett speak to reporters in the Efrat settlement in the West Bank on July 22, 2019. (Gershon Ellison / Flash90)

Similarly, at COVID, Bennett has shown himself to be a pragmatic leader who understands that his job is to balance competing interests and expert advice in order to pave a prudent path for Israel. He stared at health professionals pushing for a lockdown and kept the country's shops and schools open.

Bennett plans to join the climate fight and reach net zero by 2050, but he also plans to invest heavily in the ability of the Israel Defense Forces to pose a credible threat to the Iranian nuclear program, continue to expand the Israeli economy and fill blatant health and safety gaps Education system of the country.

Achieving these important goals takes the astute Bennett holding his sluggish coalition together and driving the economy, not a jet-set celebrity who fits a little too well into the world's elite.

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