(Washington, D.C., June 14, 2021) Yesterday, the Knesset voted 60-59 to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest-serving Israeli Prime Minister, with a national unity government, led by Naftali Bennett of the right-leaning Yamina Party. This new government represents a diverse coalition of many factions of the Israeli public. The agreement includes a rotation with Yair Lapid, Chairman of the left-leaning Yesh Atid Party, who will now serve as the alternate Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, but will become the Prime Minister after two years. It encompasses a wide range of political affiliations, from right-wing to centrist to left-wing, reflecting the vast diversity of Israel’s population, and even includes the Arab Islamist Ra’am party, which is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
We at EMET congratulate incoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his successor Yair Lapid and wish them tremendous luck and success in navigating the enormous challenges they will have in the coming years, including the looming Iran Nuclear ambitions and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
We must also reflect on the 12 years of excellence that Prime Minister Netanyahu gave to the state of Israel. Under his watch, working hand in hand with the Trump administration, Prime Minister Netanyahu made historic breakthroughs in relationships with much of the Arab and Sunni world. This culminated in the signing of the Abraham Accords on the lawn of the White House, together with Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani on September 15, 2020. Other countries, including Morocco and Sudan followed shortly after that, and Saudi Arabia and Israel have surprisingly warm relations that never would have been dreamed of a few short years ago.
A great deal of this is due to the technological and military potency and the exceptional intelligence capabilities that Israel has demonstrated in the region. The Gulf and Sunni Arab nations and Israel share identical concerns over an impending Iranian nuclear bomb which is no less than an existential threat to the entire region, and arguably, the world.
It took tremendous courage for Prime Minister Netanyahu to come to Congress and speak about the nature of this threat, which the Prime Minister, no doubt, realized would not sit well with former President Barack Obama and some of his democratic colleagues, who were determined to push through this agreement. This, despite the agreement’s obvious flaws of a sunset clause, which enables Iran to freely development a nuclear bomb in nine more years, and its omission of any consideration of its missile development.
However, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to speak before a joint Congressional session helped engender the outpouring of warmth from the Sunni Arab nations and might have been the catalyst for the blossoming relations between Israel, the U.A.E., Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan and potentially Saudi Arabia, albeit still under the table.
Israel’s technological, military and intelligence success is dependent on its vibrant economy. Prime Minister Netanyahu took Israel out of a socialistic economy in which “startups” had been hampered by bureaucratic red tape into a free market, open, capitalist economy with a per capita income of $43,689, placing it in the top 20 wealthiest nations of the world, above Canda, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Beyond that, Israel has developed an advanced space program with a spacecraft, Beresheet, on the moon.
Prime Minister Netanyahu also handled the Coronavirus pandemic excellently. As of today, Israel has only five reported new cases, making it a leader in the world’s fight against this global pandemic.
Says Sarah Stern, Founder and President of EMET, “EMET wishes to congratulate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and wishes him every success in meeting the profound challenges that await the state of Israel emanating from both Iran and the Palestinians. By the same token, we wish to express our ‘harakat hatov,’ our profound gratitude to Prime Minister Netanyahu for all of his enormous achievements over the past 12 years in many endeavors, while always protecting Israel’s national security interests, as he shepherded Israel to be the highly successful nation that it is today.
