Benjamin Netanyahu ousted as PM after 12-years

After a 12-years-long tenure Benjamin Netanyahu was ousted as the prime minister while Naftali Bennett is Israel’s new PM now.

An eight-faction coalition was formed by the opposition earlier for the purpose of ousting Benjamin Netanyahu as the PM.

A rotation arrangement has been consented and the head of the right-wing Yamina party, Naftali Bennett, would serve as prime minister first before handing over to Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party.

Naftali Bennett was on Sunday sworn in as Israel’s new Prime Minister. A diverse alliance of Israeli parties ousted Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, and formed a new government in a seismic shift in the country’s turbulent politics.

Naftali Bennett, a right-wing Jewish nationalist and former tech millionaire, was to take over at the helm of the eight-party bloc, united only by their shared disdain for the hawkish right-wing leader known as Bibi.

Netanyahu, 71, in typically combative style, vowed shortly before his defeat that if it’s our destiny to be in the opposition, we’ll do so with our heads high until we take down this bad government and return to lead the country our way.

Beloved as King Bibi by his right-wing supporters and condemned as the crime minister by his critics, Netanyahu has long been the dominant, and increasingly divisive, figure in Israeli politics. Netanyahu had accused the newly-formed coalition of eight parties as election fraud.

On Sunday, a vote in the Knesset legislature following weeks of intense political drama ended his government with a razor-thin majority of 60 to 59 in the 120-seat chamber. In Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, Netanyahu’s opponents broke out in cheers and launched into an evening of joyous celebrations, having rallied in recent days with bye bye Bibi placards.