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Benjamin Netanyahu’s record 12-year tenure as prime minister comes to an end as 60 MKs vote for the new government.
Israel’s parliament has voted to end Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year-long tenure as prime minister, approving in his stead an administration that has pledged to heal a nation bitterly divided over the departure of the country’s longest-serving leader.
Naftali Bennett, the head of a small ultranationalist party, was sworn in as prime minister after a narrow 60-59 vote in parliament. But if he wants to keep the job, he will have to maintain an unwieldy coalition of parties from the political right, left, and center.
The new government will be formed by centrist opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Bennett – who will serve as premier for two years before Lapid takes over.
They will head a government of parties from across the political spectrum, including for the first time one that represents the 21-percent minority comprising Palestinian citizens of Israel.
End of an era
Netanyahu, the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation, failed to form a government after Israel’s March 23 election, its fourth in two years.
The 71-year-old is loved by his hard-core supporters and loathed by critics. His ongoing corruption trial, on charges he denies, has only deepened the chasm.
His opponents have long reviled what they see as Netanyahu’s divisive rhetoric, underhanded political tactics, and subjection of state interests to his political survival.
The country’s deep divisions were on vivid display earlier on Sunday as Bennett, a former settler leader and hard-right religious nationalist who has called for the annexation of most of the occupied West Bank, addressed parliament ahead of the vote.
He was repeatedly interrupted and loudly heckled by supporters of Netanyahu, several of whom were escorted out of the chamber.
Reporters from Jerusalem said it has been a very “disrupted … attempt to have a peaceful transition of power”.
Bennett’s attempt to deliver his speech with what was supposed to be conciliatory words to Netanyahu was “immediately interrupted by catcalls of all sorts of oppositional natures from members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc.”
“Some of those members of the Knesset were … escorted out of the chamber.”
Netanyahu, speaking after him, vowed to return to power. He predicted the incoming government would be weak on Iran and give in to US demands to make concessions to the Palestinians.
“If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country in our way,” he said.
Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the new government will likely be more stable than it appears.
“Even though it has a very narrow majority, it will be very difficult to topple and replace because the opposition is not cohesive,” he said. Each party in the coalition will want to prove that it can deliver, and for that, they need “time and achievements.”
Still, Netanyahu “will continue to cast a shadow,” Plesner said. He expects the incoming opposition leader to exploit events and propose legislation that right-wing coalition members would like to support but can’t – all in order to embarrass and undermine them.
