London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Nov 19, 2025

0:00
0:00

Naftali Bennett sworn in as Israel's New Prime Minister, ending 12 years of Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership

In a historic move, Israel compromised its democracy by forming a coalition made up of the parties that lost the election, appointing Mr. Bennett, who got only 3% of the votes, as the Prime Minister of a coalition with a vision of unity between Jews, Arabs, the Right- and Left-wings, the hope is that this compromise will work better for all the region, and that it will last long enough to make the change that this miserable region has been waiting for for over 70 years...
For the first time in more than a decade, Israel has welcomed a new Prime Minister. Naftali Bennett was sworn in on Sunday after a new coalition unseated longtime Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

The newly appointed prime minister, who got only 3% of the votes, was appointed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in a coalition that managed to scrape in by a 60-59 vote, with one minister abstaining, sending the party which actually won the election to become the opposition.

Shortly after the votes were tallied, the now former-Prime Minister Netanyahu approached his opponent and the two shook hands. Not long after that, Netanyahu took to Twitter, instructing his supporters to hold their heads high and keep the faith; vowing to return.

"I ask you: do not let your spirit fall," he said. "We'll be back - and faster than you think."

Mr. Naftali Bennett , the new Prime Minister of Israel is a lightly-religious man, young, rich, with experience in the Israeli army special forces, and the founder of a successful technology company.

Mr. Bennett has all the qualities required to lead Israel to peace with its enemies, while still preserving its strategic relations with the United States (whose efforts to generate peace between Israel and its enemies are contrary to its interests in the region).

But Bennett's new government is very fragile, because it hangs on a majority of only one vote. Bennett's rule is also a temporary one - for only two years - after which Mr. Yair Lapid will be appointed Prime Minister. The two-year-by-two-year sharing deal was agreed by those who lost the election, so they could unite and together engineer a coalition that would have a marginal majority over Netanyahu's party - the one that actually won the election.

Whereas Israel's next Prime Minister, Mr. Yair Lapid, supports and is strongly committed to President Biden's administration, Mr. Bennett is considered a much more independent Prime Minister than Lapid and Netanyahu combined.

But the chances of this government bringing dramatic changes to Israel's foreign policy are almost zero, because the majority it secured as a coalition is not built on a common ideology, but a majority built on gathering together those with a disparate set of self-serving interests. The coalition was formed by the losers purely for the purpose of seizing power from those who won the election. It's a coalition that has very little as a common ideological denominator, if anything at all.

At the same time, this government has a great opportunity to strengthen the State of Israel and protect it from the most dangerous existential threat - actually the only threat - that it currently faces: that is, Israel's divided society; the deep rifts within it; and the mutual hatred of each faction against all the others.

This unlikely union is a surreal cooperation with multiple built-in contradictions. A government that is both right- and left-wing; a coalition that is both Jewish and Arab; with some right-wing Jews who are pushing to expand Israel into Palestinian territories; with some Israeli-Arabs who believe that Israel has no right to exist in the Palestinian territories where it is located today; a coalition that is both religious and anti-religious; a governmental with a military orientation on one hand and a civilian orientation on the other; with ultra-liberal members sitting alongside very conservative members. And, as a final contradiction, a government comprised on the one hand of lawmakers supporting the non-elected bureaucrats who have absolute power to control Israel above its so called democracy, and on the other hand featuring a few dominant players who want Israel to become a real democracy, in which for a change the people and their values are in control of the bureaucracy.

Benjamin Netanyahu's 12 years' rule as Prime Minister has ended. Under his leadership, Israel has become a super power - militarily, technologically and economically.

Netanyahu led Israel to the top of the world, despite being persecuted every day, but was eventually dethroned by the officials who control the bureaucracy who successfully engineered his removal with a controversial and questionable so-called "corruption" case.

Ironically, Netanyahu ended up as the victim of his continued failure to confront this relentless bureaucracy. In the end they managed to defeat him, thanks to the absolute power they hold over and against the democracy that Israel aspires to be.

Netanyahu's next successor is much less experienced than him, and certainly no less talented. But he also definitely has much more courage and determination to change and fix the internal problems that are crumbling the entire Israeli society from within.

As long as Israel has external enemies, what unites Israel will always be stronger than what endangers its existence. But on the day when it no longer has external enemies, Israel's existence as a Jewish state will be, for the third time in history, in real existential danger. And it will be for exactly the same reasons: endless internal conflicts, self-serving power games, and mutual hatred between factions that always lead down the path to self-destruction. The main task of any Israeli government is to address these internal issues and to fix them.

Therefore, despite all the criticisms that people have levelled against this government, we believe that its chances of doing good for Israel and its neighbors are far greater than it failing by its weaknesses!
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Caribbean Reparations Commission Seeks ‘Mutually Beneficial’ Justice from UK
EU Insists UK Must Contribute Financially for Access to Electricity Market and Broader Ties
UK to Outlaw Live-Event Ticket Resales Above Face Value
President Donald Trump Hosts Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at White House to Seal Major Defence and Investment Deals
German Entertainment Icons Alice and Ellen Kessler Die Together at Age 89
UK Unveils Sweeping Asylum Reforms with 20-Year Settlement Wait and Conditional Status
UK Orders Twitter Hacker to Repay £4.1 Million Following 2020 High-Profile Breach
Popeyes UK Eyes Century Mark as Fried-Chicken Chain Accelerates Roll-out
Two-thirds of UK nurses report working while unwell amid staffing crisis
Britain to Reform Human-Rights Laws in Sweeping Asylum Policy Overhaul
Nearly Half of Job Losses Under Labour Government Affect UK Youth
UK Chancellor Reeves Eyes High-Value Home Levy in Budget to Raise Tens of Billions
UK Urges Poland to Choose Swedish Submarines in Multi-Billion € Defence Bid
US Border Czar Tom Homan Declares UK No Longer a ‘Friend’ Amid Intelligence Rift
UK Announces Reversal of Income Tax Hike Plans Ahead of Budget
Starmer Faces Mounting Turmoil as Leaked Briefings Ignite Leadership Plot Rumours
UK Commentator Sami Hamdi Returns Home After US Visa Revocation and Detention
UK Eyes Denmark-Style Asylum Rules in Major Migration Shift
UK Signals Intelligence Freeze Amid US Maritime Drug-Strike Campaign
TikTok Awards UK & Ireland 2025 Celebrates Top Creators Including Max Klymenko as Creator of the Year
UK Growth Nearly Stalls at 0.1% in Q3 as Cyberattack Halts Car Production
Apple Denied Permission to Appeal UK App Store Ruling, Faces Over £1bn Liability
UK Chooses Wylfa for First Small Modular Reactors, Drawing Sharp U.S. Objection
Starmer Faces Growing Labour Backlash as Briefing Sparks Authority Crisis
Reform UK Withdraws from BBC Documentary Amid Legal Storm Over Trump Speech Edit
UK Prime Minister Attempts to Reassert Authority Amid Internal Labour Leadership Drama
UK Upholds Firm Rules on Stablecoins to Shield Financial System
Brussels Divided as UK-EU Reset Stalls Over Budget Access
Prince Harry’s Remembrance Day Essay Expresses Strong Regret at Leaving Britain
UK Unemployment Hits 5% as Wage Growth Slows, Paving Way for Bank of England Rate Cut
Starmer Warns of Resurgent Racism in UK Politics as He Vows Child-Poverty Reforms
UK Grocery Inflation Slows to 4.7% as Supermarkets Launch Pre-Christmas Promotions
UK Government Backs the BBC amid Editing Scandal and Trump Threat of Legal Action
UK Assessment Mis-Estimated Fallout From Palestine Action Ban, Records Reveal
UK Halts Intelligence Sharing with US Amid Lethal Boat-Strike Concerns
King Charles III Leads Britain in Remembrance Sunday Tribute to War Dead
UK Retail Sales Growth Slows as Households Hold Back Ahead of Black Friday and Budget
Shell Pulls Out of Two UK Floating Wind Projects Amid Renewables Retreat
Viagogo Hit With £15 Million Tax Bill After HMRC Transfer-Pricing Inquiry
Jaguar Land Rover Cyberattack Pinches UK GDP, Bank of England Says
UK and Germany Sound Alarm on Russian-Satellite Threat to Critical Infrastructure
Former Prince Andrew Faces U.S. Congressional Request for Testimony Amid Brexit of Royal Title
BBC Director-General Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness Resign Amid Editing Controversy
Tom Cruise Arrives by Helicopter at UK Scientology Fundraiser Amid Local Protests
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson Face Fresh UK Probes Amid Royal Fallout
Mothers Link Teen Suicides to AI Chatbots in Growing Legal Battle
UK Government to Mirror Denmark’s Tough Immigration Framework in Major Policy Shift
UK Government Turns to Denmark-Style Immigration Reforms to Overhaul Border Rules
UK Chancellor Warned Against Cutting Insulation Funding as Budget Looms
UK Tenant Complaints Hit Record Levels as Rental Sector Faces Mounting Pressure
×