(REUTERS): Naftali Bennett was sworn in as Israel’s new prime minister on Sunday after winning a confidence vote with the narrowest of margins, just 60 votes to 59, ending Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year run.
After four elections in two years, Bennett’s incoming government breaks a long political deadlock and ushers in the most diverse coalition Israel has ever seen, including the first Arab party to serve in the government.
In a raucous session in which Netanyahu’s right-wing and ultra-Orthodox supporters shouted “shame” and “liar” at Bennett, parliament voted confidence in his new administration by a razor thin 60-59 majority.
In his speech before the Knesset confidence vote, Bennett celebrated the diversity and warned of polarization within the country. “Twice in history, we have lost our national home precisely because the leaders of the generation were not able to sit with one and another and compromise,” he said.
“Each was right, yet with all their being right, they burnt the house down on top of us,” Bennett said, adding, “I am proud of the ability to sit together with people with very different views from my own.”
Bennett became the premier as the leader of Yamina, a right-wing party with only seven seats in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, making him the only prime minister in the country’s history with such a small faction. By contrast, Netanyahu’s Likud party won 30 seats in March’s election. Once again, however, Netanyahu could not cobble together a governing coalition with a majority of the 120 members of Knesset.
Under a coalition deal, Bennett will be replaced as prime minister by centrist Yair Lapid, 57, in 2023. Heading into opposition, Netanyahu, the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation, pledged he would soon return to power.
The new government, formed after an inconclusive March 23 election, plans largely to avoid sweeping moves on hot-button international issues such as policy toward the Palestinians, and to focus on domestic reforms. Palestinians were unmoved by the change of administration, predicting that Bennett would pursue the same right-wing agenda as Netanyahu.
Israel’s longest-serving leader, Netanyahu was prime minister since 2009, after a first term from 1996 to 1999. But he was weakened by his repeated failure to clinch victory in the polls since 2019 and by an ongoing corruption trial, in which he has denied any wrongdoing.
