After twelve long straight years in power (and fifteen in total), with especially economic highs, a great vaccine rollout and moral lows, the era Netanyahu is over. Today, by the narrowest of possible margins, 60:59 in the 120-seat Knesset, Naftali Bennett was chosen as Benjamin Netanyahu’s successor as Israel’s new prime minister.
The most likely corrupt Netanyahu should have been ousted years ago, but managed to cling to power for far too long, notably because opposition politicians such as Benny Gantz lacked his chuzpe.
Finally, in May and June 2021, Yair Lapid, Naftali Bennett and others crafted an unlikely coalition of eight parties from the politicial right, center and left, including for the first time in Israeli history an Arab party, Ra’am, in the ranks of the new government.
This new alliance to unseat Netanyahu became possible because Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid — with 17 seats by far the largest opposition party in the Knesset — was ready to let the far-right Yamina leader Naftali Bennett take over the role of prime minister first in a rotation scheme.
Naftali Bennett is a young (*1972) former high-tech entrepreneur who made a fortune with a cyber-security firm he sold for $145 million and a cloud-computing company reportedly sold for $100 to $130 million. Instead of enjoying his new fortune, he went into politics and served as Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff until 2008. Subsequently, Bennett served as Netanyahu’s Minister of Economy and Religious Services from 2013 to 2015 and as Minister of Education from 2015 to 2019.
Bennett fell out with Netanyahu some time ago and, through several newly founded parties, became his own man. His current far-right party Yamina, which is popular with religious Jews and West Bank settlers, only won six seats in the current Knesset. Nevertheless, in the new rotation government, he can now serve as prime minister for two years before Yair Lapid is supposed to take over as head of government for another two years.
Is Netanyahu’s time surely over? Not yet. The new coalition will govern with the closest of margins and could be unseated at any time. However, Netanyahu is facing corruption trials which now could get tougher for him since he is no longer serving as prime minister. Will the attorney general end Bibis’ political career once and for all?
Suggested literature: Anshel Pfeffer: Bibi. The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu. 2018, 256 pages. Order the book (more than a biography) from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de.
Photograph on top: Israeli Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett on the right together with U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Feb. 4, 2020. (DoD photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class James K. Lee). Source: Israel Bilat, U.S. Secretary of Defense. Via Wikipedia/Wikimedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Israel_Bilat_(49676211771).jpg
Article added on June 13, 2021 at 23:13 German time.
