14 | JUNE 17 • 2021
B
enjamin Netanyahu’s
record-breaking term
as prime minister
ended on Sunday night, June
13, when the Knesset voted to
approve the new government
formed by Yamina leader
Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid
chairman Yair Lapid.
The new government passed
at 8:55 p.m. with the support of
60 Members of Knesset, while
59 opposed it. Ra’am (United
Arab List) MK Saeed Alharomi
abstained.
The MKs in the new coali-
tion and their family members
in the visitors’ gallery erupted
in applause when the results
were announced.
Bennett and Netanyahu then
shook hands, and following his
swearing in as prime minister,
Bennett sat in Netanyahu’s
chair in the Knesset plenum.
But when Bennett passed by
Netanyahu’s new chair follow-
ing his swearing in, Netanyahu
declined to take his hand again.
The ministers then took
turns being sworn in. Bennett
was sworn in as Israel’s 13th
prime minister and Lapid as
the 14th.
Bennett convened the gov-
ernment for its first meeting at
the Knesset. The historic photo
of Israel’s 36th government
was taken at the President’s
Residence on Monday.
Earlier on Monday, Bennett
defiantly presented his new
government’s ministers and
guidelines in an address at the
Knesset plenum, while MKs
who will be in the opposition
heckled him constantly.
At the moment when
Bennett started his speech
introducing his government,
Religious Zionist Party head
Bezalel Smotrich and other
MKs shouted, “Shame,
” while
waving posters of victims of
terrorism. They were removed
from the plenum.
“I am proud that I can sit in
a government with people with
very different views,
” Bennett
told his hecklers in the Knesset
plenum, adding that they
seemed to have a problem with
losing power.
SEEKING RESTRAINT
Bennett called on all sides of
the political spectrum to dis-
play restraint. In recent years,
Israel had stopped being man-
aged as a country, he said.
“The loud tone of the
screams is the same as the fail-
ure to govern during your term
in office,
” Bennett snapped
back at the Likud MKs.
Shas and United Torah
Judaism MKs heckled Bennett,
calling him a liar and a cheat.
But Bennett promised to help
the haredi (ultra-Orthodox)
sector, even though its MKs
would not be part of his gov-
ernment. He pledged to build a
new haredi city for the sector’s
growing population.
“This is not a day of mourn-
ing,
” Bennett said. “There is
no disengagement here. There
is no harm being caused to
anyone. There is a change of
government in a democracy.
That’s it. And I assure it is a
government that will work for
the sake of all the people.
“We will do all we can so
that no one should have to feel
afraid. We are here in the name
WORLD
Netanyahu out after 12 years; Lapid takes over in 2023.
Bennett Installed as
Israeli Prime Minister
GIL HOFFMAN JERUSALEM POST
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett with his family, in the Knesset in
Jerusalem, on June 13.
The heads of the eight parties
making up the new government
meet in the Knesset on June 13,
2021. Left to right: Ra’am head
Mansour Abbas, Labor chief
Merav Michaeli, Blue and White
head Benny Gantz, Yesh Atid
leader Yair Lapid, Yamina chief
Naftali Bennett, New Hope head
Gideon Sa’ar, Yisrael Beytenu
chief Avigdor Liberman and
Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz.
ARIEL ZANDBERG/YAMINA/TIMES OF ISRAEL
ARIEL ZANDBERG/YAMINA/TIMES OF ISRAEL