Israel’s parliament known as the Knesset on Sunday rejected long-time leader Benjamin Netanyahu and instead voted in favour of a new eight-party coalition government.
The coalition won a slender vote of 61 seats out of 120.
Yamina leader Naftali Bennett, a hi-tech millionaire, whose coalition won the confidence vote, will serve as prime minister for two years. His ally the Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, a former popular TV host, will take over as prime minister after that.
The last days of Netanyahu’s iron grip on Israel were marked by violence against Palestinians in an 11-day bloody siege that killed more than 200 men, women, and children.
The strongman tactics endeared Netanyahu to some Israelis, but clearly, it was not enough to keep “Bibi” in power – Israel’s parliament accepted the formation of a new government.
The vote means that the 71-year-old Likud leader has been relegated to the opposition benches.
Bibi unsuccessfully tried to secure enough support in parliament to scupper attempts to confirm a new government.
After he failed to win a majority, Netanyahu was given the first option to try to form a coalition government. He couldn’t get enough support among the opposition by the time his deadline expired.
Last month opposition leader Lapid and his main coalition partner, Bennett averted Israel’s fifth consecutive election in just over two years by announcing they signed a pact to work together.
The agreement that included an Israel Palestine party, Ra’am, still needed to be approved by Israel’s parliament, in a vote.
When the chairperson of Ra’am, Mansour Abbas, signed the pact it allowed the chairperson of Yesh Atid, Lapid, to inform the president he has succeeded in forming a government.
Addressing the Knesset on Sunday ahead of the vote Netanyahu said under his leadership, the right-wing made Israel a world leader. “We did this without surrendering to international pressures”.
Netanyahu became Likud’s leader in 1993 and led the party to victory as Israel’s youngest-ever prime minister in 1996, aged 46.
He lost power in 1999 but regained it 10 years later. This time Netanyahu’s loss of power leaves him exposed.
He is facing a corruption trial in which he is accused of accepting improper gifts and seeking to trade regulatory favours with media moguls in exchange for positive coverage.
