Bennett coalition ousts Netanyahu as Israel PM
NEW GOVERMENT GETS THIN MAJORITY AMID KNESSET CHAOS
In an era-ending vote, Israeli lawmakers yesterday approved a new government, sweeping aside the longestserving Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and installing a fellow right-wing nationalist, Naftali Bennett, as the country’s new leader.
The narrow vote by the 120-member Knesset, or parliament, ushered in a new “government of change” coalition that was cobbled together from wildly disparate political parties with little in common beyond a shared desire to expel Netanyahu from the office he had held for the last 12 years. Heading into opposition, Netanyahu, 71, the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation, pledged he would soon return to power. In a raucous session in which Netanyahu’s right-wing and ultraOrthodox supporters shouted “shame” and “liar” at Bennett, parliament voted confidence in his new administration by a razor thin 60-59 majority.
Biden vows support
President Joe Biden said the US remained committed to Israel’s security and would work with its new government. “I look forward to working with Prime Minister Bennett to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between our two nations. Israel has no better friend than the US,” he said.
A former defence minister and a high-tech millionaire, Bennett’s alliance includes for the first time in Israel’s history a party that represents its 21 per cent Arab minority.
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. Under a coalition deal following the March 23 vote, Bennett will be replaced as prime minister by centrist Yair Lapid in 2023.
The Israeli parliament on Sunday approved the formation of a new government ending 12 years of rule by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving premier. Netanyahu has served a record-breaking five terms, first from 1996 to 1999, then continuously from 2009 to 2021. A flimsy eight-party coalition has been stitched together to lead Israel for the next four years.
Under the coalition agreement, right-wing nationalist Naftali, who heads the Yamina party, will hold the office of the prime minister until September 2023.
Netanyahu, who fought hard to remain in office, called the new government a “dangerous coalition of fraud and surrender”. The coalition members share very little in common expect their unity in their opposition to Netanyahu, whose long period in office has been marked by allegations of corruption, rise of the Israeli right, unprecedented social division in Israel and most importantly the virtual death of the peace process and an escalation in Jewish colony activities in the occupied territories.
In all his years in power, he sabotaged almost every move to revive the long-dormant peace process. He worked on the principle that the Arab-Israeli conflict should not be solved as per the international resolution or even as per the recommendation of Israel’s closet ally, the United States, but instead be ‘managed’. His guiding principle has been that Israel can forever live with an occupied, oppressed Palestine as long as there is no real pressure on the Israeli government and people to engage in peace. US former president Donald Trump supported that twisted vision. However, the new administration seems to think differently. President Joe Biden is not as fond of Netanyahu as his predecessor was.
Netanyahu may have left the seat of power in Israeli but his policy in opposing the peace process will remain alive. The new government is expected to resist any pressure from the US to engage in political talks with the Palestinian Authority. The new Prime Minister, Bennett, is also opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state and in favour of the annexation of the occupied West Bank. Therefore, it unlikely that there will be any real move on the political track. Similarly, the new government is not expected to offer serious solution to the social and economic problems.
Still, the coalition has achieved something many has failed to do in more than a decade — ousting Netanyahu. Not a bad start.