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