Israel’s parliament approved a new government on Sunday, ending the record 12-year tenure of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister and swearing in a fragile, diverse coalition that has promised to break the country’s political gridlock.
The change came by the slimmest of margins, with 60 votes in favor and 59 opposed in Israel’s 120-member Knesset. One member abstained, USA Today reports.
Far-right politician Naftali Bennett, who once worked for Netanyahu, becomes Israel’s new prime minister for two years in a coalition agreement that includes eight separate parties and is led by Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid.
Lapid will serve as foreign minister and become prime minister after Bennett’s two-year stint.
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“It really is the end of an era,” said Ihan Goldenberg, director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank.
Israel’s new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has vowed to unite the nation frayed by four elections in two years of political stalemate, the BBC reports.
He said his government “will work for the sake of all the people,” adding that the priorities would be reforms in education, health and cutting red tape.
