Tel Aviv: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year hold on power is set to end on Sunday when the parliament votes on a new government, ushering in an administration that has pledged to heal a nation bitterly divided over the departure of the country’s longest-serving leader.
Netanyahu, 71, the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation, failed to form a government after Israel’s March 23 election, its fourth in two years.
The new cabinet, which will be sworn in after a Knesset confidence vote it is expected to win, was cobbled together by centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid and ultra-nationalist Naftali Bennett.
Bennett, a hawkish hi-tech millionaire, will serve as prime minister for two years before Lapid, a former popular TV host, takes over.
