Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents have announced that they have reached a deal to form a new governing coalition, hence the PM’s removal from power is eminent.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been Israel’s longest serving Prime Minister. The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, and his main coalition partner, Naftali Bennett, announced they had reached an announcement shortly before a Wednesday, June 2 midnight deadline and prevented what could have been Israel’s fifth consecutive election in just over two years.
“This government will work for all the citizens of Israel, those that voted for it and those that didn’t. It will do everything to unite Israeli society,” Lapid said.
Israel’s parliament or Knesset must approve the agreement through a vote that will likely take place next week.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been fighting corruption charges and hence he is desperate to remain in office. He is expected to pull all strings available to him to prevent the duo from taking on power.
The change in leadership is coming at a time when Israel is fighting the Hamas militia in the Gaza Strip. The country is also witnessing mob violence between Jews and Arabs in cities across Israel.
Lapid and Bennett will rotate the job of prime minister during their two consecutive terms.
Bennett was formerly an ally of Netanyahu and he is expected to serve the first two years, while Lapid will serve the final two years.
This is an historic deal which also includes a small Islamist party, the United Arab List, which would make it the first Arab party ever to be part of a governing coalition.
“This is the first time an Arab party is a partner in the formation of a government,” said the party’s leader, Mansour Abbas.
“This agreement has a lot of things for the benefit of Arab society, and Israeli society in general.”
Among the concessions secured by Abbas were a five-year plan for combating violent crime in Arab communities and an economic plan for investing 30 billion shekels ($9.2 billion) in Arab towns and cities according to Army Radio.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dominated the Israeli politics over the past three decades, serving as prime minister since 2009 in addition to an earlier term in the late 1990s.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a number of achievements such as last year’s groundbreaking diplomatic agreements with four Arab countries and the defence of Israel from Hamas and Iran.
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