JERUSALEM: On Thursday, Israeli lawmakers dissolved parliament, necessitating the country’s fifth election in less than four years; Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will assume caretaker prime minister duties at midnight.
Following the unanimous 92-0 vote, centrist Lapid embraced departing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, whose one-year leadership of an unwieldy, eight-party coalition was ultimately undone by its ideological divisions.
Lapid, whose father was born in Hungary and survived the Holocaust, went directly from parliament to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center in Jerusalem.
The 58-year-old said in a statement, “There, I promised my late father that I would always keep Israel strong and able to defend itself and protect its children.”
The newly called election, scheduled for 1 November, is further evidence that Israel remains mired in an unprecedented era of political paralysis, with early opinion polls indicating that the results may once again be inconclusive.
Bennett, a religious nationalist who announced he was leaving politics, hosted Lapid for a brief transition ceremony.
Bennett said to Lapid, “I turn over to you the responsibility for the State of Israel,” and Lapid described Bennett as “a good man and an excellent prime minister.” Lapid continued, “This is not a farewell ceremony because I have no intention of leaving you.”
Following what he described on Thursday as a “failed (coalition) experiment”, the hawkish former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has assured that he and his allies — extreme-right nationalists and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties — will finally rally a majority.
“We are the only available option. Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges he denies, called for “a strong, nationalist, accountable government.”
Regarded by both allies and detractors as an indefatigable political fighter, Netanyahu was already campaigning on Thursday, telling shoppers at a Jerusalem mall that combating rising living costs — which he blamed on Bennett’s “bad government” — will be his “first mission” if reelected.
