In Israel, the Benjamin Netanyahu era has come to an end for the time being. In a vote of confidence in parliament, 60 of the 120 MPs voted for Naftali Bennett as the new Prime Minister, 59 voted against him. One MP abstained.
Bennett has already been sworn in as the new Prime Minister. His opening speech in parliament showed what headwinds he must reckon with. She was disturbed by the Netanyahu camp so severely by angry heckling that he could barely finish a sentence. Netanyahu congratulated his successor with a quick handshake. Thousands of Netanyahu’s opponents celebrated the change of power on the streets of the country, for example in Tel Aviv.
“This is the hour when the burden of running the nation and the country passes like a relay race to the next generation,” said Bennnett. In addition, he spoke out against a return to the international nuclear agreement with Iran. He warned the Islamist Hamas, ruling Gaza, of an “iron wall” should it attack targets in Israel again. Under his leadership, Israel would work for rapprochement with other Arab states. Meanwhile, Hamas announced a continuation of the armed struggle against Israel.
In the run-up to the vote, there was Netanyahu with his right-wing Likud party on the one hand, and a fragile alliance of eight parties from the right to the left, including an Arab party, on the other. Until recently, it was unclear who the MPs would vote for, as Netanyahu’s opponents were only expected to have a wafer-thin majority of one vote.
The political mood in the country is more heated than it has been for a long time. Netanyahu, who ruled Israel as prime minister for twelve years without a break, and his supporters tried hard to the last to prevent the formation of the new government. No one has directed Israel’s fate longer than he has. His Likud party is the largest parliamentary group with 30 seats, but is now left out.
The eight-party alliance has planned a rotation at the top of the state: First, Bennett from the far-right Jamina party, who was previously defense minister under Netanyahu, is to become prime minister and, after two years, be replaced by Jair Lapid of the moderate future party. The former TV journalist was commissioned to form a government after the recent election after Netanyahu had failed to do so. Lapid, however, gave Bennett precedence for the office of prime minister in order to make the coalition possible at all. There has already been considerable criticism that the party of Israel’s head of government-designate in the Knesset only has seven seats.
At the end of 2018, Netanyahu’s right-wing religious coalition collapsed in the dispute over a law that should gradually oblige more strictly religious men to do military service. Four parliamentary elections always ended with a stalemate. Since then it has not been possible to adopt a new budget. As one of the first projects, the new government could now introduce a law that limits the term of office of prime ministers to eight years. This would rule out Netanyahu’s return to office.
Netanyahu is under pressure on suspicion of corruption and had to appear in court at the beginning of April. He denies the allegations.
As one of the first representatives of other states, US President Joe Biden congratulated the new prime minister. “I look forward to working with Prime Minister Bennett to strengthen all aspects of the close and lasting relationship between our two nations,” he said. Israel has no better friend than the United States.