In an interview marking eleven years since the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif (officially known as "the disengagement"), Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) spoke with Arutz Sheva about the lessons he learned from the ordeal.
"In that period I was the CEO of a high-tech company, and my wife and I joined demonstrations and marches, and even bought Israeli flags and passed them out. We could see how, against the will of the people, who never voted for the expulsion, political power managed to trample an entire part of the population without any sort of consultation.
"It brought upon us a human, a zionist, and a security tragedy, and the warnings proved to be true," he said.
According to Bennett, the expulsion is what caused him to enter politics. "The major lesson I learned from the disengagement is that the Knesset decides the future of the State. Not just with smiles but with real political power."
Part of the change, he explains, has to come from a strong political party to the right of the Likud: "It's important to remember that all the major retreats from parts of the land of Israel, including the disengagement, transpired under Likud-led governments, which included people now in key positions of power who voted for the Disengagement.
"Therefore, we have to be strong and not let the situation deteriorate. Sometimes people ask me why so much political power is needed, and I reply that such power is need exactly for situations like this. In order to guard the land of Israel we need to be strong, determined, and have a backbone," he concluded.