Earlier this week YWN-ISRAEL reported that Bayit Yehudi party leader, Minister Naftali Bennett, is going to be challenged for the party’s top spot.

The dati leumi Srugim website now reports that challenger is IDF reserve duty colonel, Yonatan Branski. Branski has served as deputy commander of the Gaza Division along with other command posts, as well as serving today as the executive director of Netzach Yehuda, the non-profit arm of Nachal Chareidi. http://nahalharedi.com/?lang=en

The following biography on Branski appears on the NGO’s website: Col. (res.) Jonathan Branski is the CEOat “Friends Of the Nahal Haredi” since 2014, after retiring 25 years positions in the IDF. Among his military duties he served as the “Nahal Haredi” (97) Battalion commander, as the operations officer of the Southern Command, commander of the “Negev” Battalion, the head of Staff at the military rabbinate and the deputy commander of the Gaza Division.

He graduated three years in the “Bnei David” Yeshiva at Eli and has BA in political science and Middle Eastern studies, and a master’s degree in diplomacy and national security.

Srugim adds that Branski has yet to officially announce he is challenging Bennett for the party’s leadership slot, most likely because he was abroad for a period of time. It is added Branski is likely to make his intensions official after the Tishrei Yomim Tovim.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)