A
rising star on the Israeli political scene, MK Ayelet Shaked doesn't
fit the usual molds. A committed right-winger from liberal north Tel
Aviv (where she still lives), she is also a secular Jew who holds a
prominent position in the country’s most powerful religious party,
Habayit Hayehudi.
With a degree in electrical engineering and computer
sciences, Shaked worked as a marketing director at Texas Instruments,
before she turned to politics. For two years, she served as office
director for Benjamin Netanyahu, when he was in the opposition, and was
responsible for hiring the man who would become her political partner,
Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett (he subsequently became her
former boss’s nemesis).
Since joining the Knesset last January, she has
enjoyed a high profile, leading the committee that put together the most
significant piece of legislation on drafting the ultra-Orthodox for
military service.
