Israeli–Palestinian conflict
In February 2012, Bennett published a plan to manage the Israeli–Palestinian conflict called "The Israel Stability Initiative." The plan was based in part on elements of earlier initiatives, such as "Peace on Earth" by Adi Mintz and the "Elon Peace Plan" by Binyamin Elon. It relied on statements of Netanyahu and Likud party ministers in favor of unilateral annexation of the West Bank. Bennett opposed the creation of a Palestinian state, saying: "I will do everything in my power to make sure they never get a state."
In January 2013, Bennett suggested a tripartition of the Palestinian territories, whereby Israel would unilaterally annex Area C, authority over the Gaza Strip would be transferred to Egypt, and Area A and Area B would remain with the Palestinian National Authority, but under the security umbrella of the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet to "ensure quiet, suppress Palestinian terrorism, and prevent Hamas from taking over the territory." Area C constituted 62% of the area, and approximately 365,000 people lived in Israeli settlements. Palestinians who lived in this area would be offered Israeli citizenship or permanent residency status (between 48,000, according to Bennett, and 150,000, according to other surveys).
Finally, Israel would invest in creating roads so Palestinians could travel between Areas A and B without checkpoints, and invest in infrastructure and joint industrial zones, because "[p]eace grows from below – through people, and people in daily life." Bennett also resisted immigration of Palestinian refugees now living outside the West Bank, or the connection between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In 2011, he stated that there were about 50 factories in the West Bank industrial region where Israelis and Palestinians work together and cited this as one workable approach to finding peace between the two sides.
In June 2013, Bennett suggested that Israel must learn to live with the Palestinian problem without a "surgical action" of separation to two states: "I have a friend who's got shrapnel in his rear end, and he's been told that it can be removed surgically, but it would leave him disabled ... . So he decided to live with it. There are situations where insisting on perfection can lead to more trouble than it's worth." Bennett's "Shrapnel in the butt" quickly became widely known as representing his view of the Palestinian problem.
In response to Israel's release of Palestinian prisoners in 2013, Bennett said that Palestinian terrorists should be shot, allegedly adding: "I already killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there is absolutely no problem with that." Bennett was widely condemned for these words, although he denied saying them, claiming he said merely that "terrorists should be killed if they pose an immediate life threat to our soldiers when in action." In January 2013, Bennett said: "There is not going to be a Palestinian state within the tiny land of Israel [referring to the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea]. It's just not going to happen. A Palestinian state would be a disaster for the next 200 years."
In December 2014, a group of academics who opposed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and members of The Third Narrative, a Labor Zionist organization, called on the U.S. and E.U. to impose sanctions on Bennett and three other Israelis "who lead efforts to insure permanent Israeli occupation of the West Bank and to annex all or parts of it unilaterally in violation of international law." The academics, who called themselves Scholars for Israel and Palestine (SIP) and claimed to be "pro-Israel, pro-Palestine, pro-peace", asked the U.S. and EU to freeze Bennett's foreign assets and impose visa restrictions. Bennett was chosen as a target for proposed sanctions because of his work in opposing the 2010 settlement freeze while he was director of the Yesha Council, actively supporting annexation of over 60% of the West Bank, and "pressing strongly for a policy of creeping annexation."
In October 2016, Bennett said, "On the matter of the Land of Israel, we have to move from holding action to a decision. We have to mark the dream, and the dream is that Judea and Samaria will be part of the sovereign State of Israel. We have to act today, and we must give our lives. We can't keep marking the Land of Israel as a tactical target and a Palestinian state as the strategic target." In November 2016, Bennett said that the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States gave him hope that the two-state solution would no longer be considered viable, claiming: "The era of the Palestinian state is over."
According to Israeli journalist Anshel Pfeffer, those who have worked with Bennett have privately said that much of his rhetoric is for electioneering purposes, and he is in fact more moderate than believed. Despite his expressed right-wing views against a Palestinian state, while engaged in coalition negotiations for a unity government with Yair Lapid and other party leaders following the 2021 Knesset election, during which he was offered the prime ministership, Bennett agreed to a policy of not annexing any territory in the West Bank and to not build any new settlements while being prime minister in a potential unity government.
In October 2023, during the Gaza war, he expressed support for Israel's total blockade of the Gaza Strip, saying "I'm not going to feed electricity to my enemies." In the interview with U.K.-based Sky News, Bennett was asked: "What about those Palestinians who are in hospital on life support and babies in incubators that will have to be turned off because Israelis have cut the power to Gaza?" Bennett replied: "Are you seriously keep on asking me about Palestinian civilians? What's wrong with you? Have you not seen what's happened? We're fighting Nazis.... When the U.K., Great Britain, was fighting the Nazis during World War II, no one asked what's going on in Dresden."
Following the beginning of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, Bennett advised against a direct ground invasion and occupation of major cities, but rather for Israel to create buffer zones and conduct sporadic ground raids against isolated pockets of Hamas militants. He believes that this is the best plan that would drain Hamas's resources while it protects Gazan civilians and prevents the collapse of the Israeli economy.
In July 2026, Bennett stated that under his leadership, a future Israeli government would formally declare Qatar an enemy state, characterizing the country as a major financier of Hamas and alleging it was responsible for the casualties and abductions during the 7 October attacks. He further alleged that Qatar funds Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps based on intelligence he received during his premiership, and described the Al Jazeera Media Network as a global influence campaign aimed at undermining Israel. In response, Qatar accused Bennett of spreading falsehoods for political gain, adding that this is not the first time Bennett has attacked Qatar to score political points at home, that the country's activities in Gaza were carried out in full coordination with Israel and had helped secure the release of Israeli hostages, and that the Israeli politicians who criticize Qatar should instead focus on addressing their own domestic challenges.
