Jerusalem, June 13

Naftali Bennett was on Sunday sworn in as Israel's new Prime Minister, ousting Benjamin Netanyahu from power after an uninterrupted 12 years at the helm of affairs.

Bennett, the 49-year-old leader of the right-wing Yamina party, took oath of office after parliament (Knesset) voted on Sunday on the new government led by him. The new government has 27 ministers, nine of them women.

The new government — an unprecedented coalition of ideologically divergent political parties drawn from the Right, the Left and the Centre, along with an Arab party — has a razor-thin majority in a 120-member house.

Earlier, Bennett presented his new government's ministers in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in a speech constantly interrupted by supporters of 71-year-old Netanyahu.

Power-sharing agreement

• Naftali Bennett, 49, has entered into a power-sharing agreement with Centrist leader Yair Lapid, the head of the Yesh Atid party, under which the latter would take over premiership in September 2023, serving for two years till the end of the term.
• Lapid, the leader of the second-largest faction in the Knesset with 17 seats was invited by President Reuven Rivlin to form a coalition after Netanyahu, leading the Likud party with 30 seats, expressed his inability to put together a government.

Amid incessant heckling from rival bloc's lawmakers, Bennett said he was proud "of the ability to sit with people of different opinions". "At the decisive moment we took responsibility," he said. "The alternative to this government was more elections, more hate, which would have broken up the country." "It is time for responsible leaders from different parts of the nation to stop this madness,” he asserted. The alliance contains parties that have vast ideological differences, and perhaps most significantly includes the first independent Arab party to be part of a potential ruling coalition, Ra'am. — Agencies

Bennett vows to fight Iran nuclear deal

Israel’s PM Naftali Bennett said renewing the international nuclear deal with Iran would be a mistake. In a speech to Parliament, Bennett said Israel was ready to act against Iran. “Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons,” Bennett said. The comments maintain the confrontational policy by Benjamin Netanyahu. AP