Netanyahu ousted, Naftali Bennett named Israel's new PM

Netanyahu ousted, Naftali Bennett named Israel's new PM

PanARMENIAN.Net - The long and divisive reign of Benjamin Netanyahu, the dominant Israeli politician of the past generation, officially ended on Sunday, June 13 night, at least for the time being, as the country’s Parliament gave its vote of confidence to a precarious coalition government stitched together by anti-Netanyahu forces, The New York Times reports.

Naftali Bennett, a 49-year-old former aide to Netanyahu who opposes a Palestinian state and is considered to the right of his old ally, replaced him as Prime Minister after winning by just a single vote. Yair Lapid, a centrist leader and the new Foreign Minister, is set to take Bennett’s place after two years, if their government can hold together that long.

They lead a fragile eight-party alliance ranging from far left to hard right, from secular to religious, that few expect to last a full term and many consider both the embodiment of the rich diversity of Israeli society but also the epitome of its political disarray.

Members of the bloc agree on little but a desire to oust Netanyahu, the longest-serving leader in the country’s history, and the need to end a lengthy political gridlock that produced four elections in two years; left Israel without a stable government or a state budget; and formed the backdrop to a surge in interethnic mob violence between Jewish and Arab citizens during the recent 11-day conflict with Hamas.

“We stopped the train before the abyss,” Bennett said in a speech to Parliament on Sunday. “The time has come for different leaders, from all parts of the people, to stop — to stop this madness.”

During 15 years in power, the last 12 of them uninterrupted, Netanyahu helped shift Israel further to the right and presided over the dwindling of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, collapsing hopes of a two-state resolution to the conflict. He was also accused of undermining the rule of law by staying in office while standing trial for corruption. It was a decision that divided the Israeli right and contributed to Bennett’s decision to side with Netanyahu’s opponents.

Netanyahu, 71, simultaneously scored several diplomatic triumphs, including agreements with four Arab countries that upended assumptions that Israel would only normalize relations with the Arab world after it sealed peace with the Palestinians.

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