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| Benjamin Netanyahu |
The opponents of Israeal announced Wednesday that they had reached an agreement to form a government and oust him from office, in all likelihood spelling the end of Benjamin Netanyahu era .
Centrist lawmaker Yair Lapid said in a statement that he had informed Israeli President Reuven Rivlin he had succeeded in forming a coalition government with Naftali Bennett, a former defense minister and onetime Netanyahu ally, as well as other parties.
Bennett, a former settler leader who shares many of Netanyahu’s hard-line views and heads the small religious Yamina party, is due to serve as prime minister for two years before handing over the reins to Lapid for two more.
But Mr. Netanyahu signaled early Thursday that he would not go down without a struggle, calling on lawmakers to oppose “this dangerous left-wing government.”
While he appeared to have few avenues to hang onto power, Mr. Netanyahu’s career has been marked by a keen instinct for political survival.
Under the last-minute agreement by a coalition of opposition parties,Naftali Bennett, who opposes a Palestinian state and is a standard-bearer for religious nationalists, will serve as prime minister until 2023.
Should the new government hold together that long, the deal then calls
for him to be replaced by Yair Lapid, a centrist former television host
considered a standard-bearer for secular Israelis. Mr. Lapid would serve
the remaining two years of the coalition’s term.
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