It's been apparent for some time that Netanyahu's shelf life was dwindling. His legal troubles over corruption charges are a major factor, but one also senses that the basic need of a nation-state for fresh political energy has become more of a driver in the country's dynamics.
Due to Netanyahu's positions and accomplishments as prime minister over two stints in the job have assured him a prominent place in Israeli and world history (bolstered by his role in the 1976 Entebbe raid). He has understood that Israel is a Western nation despite where it's situated geographically. He's understood the stakes regarding the threat from Jihadists, the Assad regime in Syria and the Iranian regime and acted wisely in situations in which those stakes might be raised.
it's time, though, for fresh perspectives.
The coalition about to take power, as represented by the historically unprecedented trio of political leaders, is going to have to muster an abundance of tact, patience and willingness to communicate constantly within itself. It seems, at the outset, anyway, that, for all the diversity among the three, that it has a decent chance of proving itself stable and capable of maneuvering effectively. After all, where are the serious challenges? There are no other viable players at the moment among Israel's parties and coalitions.
These are three interesting individuals, to be sure.
Naftali Bennett was born in Haifa in 1972 to a couple from the United States that had marinated in leftist politics while at UC Berkeley, but, upon visiting Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War had a dramatic transformation of viewpoint. Bennett and his brothers were raised as Orthodox Jews. Bennett served in the Israeli military and saw combat. He's still a reservist. He married his wife, a pastry chef, and studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He moved to the US for a while and became a software entrepreneur. The pull of political involvement brought him back to Israel, joining Likud and then the Jewish Home party. He had several influential portfolios, including in the fields of education and diaspora affairs.
His relationship with Netanyahu began to fray as he got more active:
Bennett had previously viewed Netanyahu as his mentor. He looked up to him so much that he even named his eldest son, Yoni, after Netanyahu's brother, who was killed in 1976, Reuters reported.
Their working relationship soured after a mysterious falling out in 2008 at the end of Bennett's tenure as his chief of staff, according to The Washington Post. The argument was, according to Israeli media reports, related to Netanyahu's wife, Sara.
A year later, they clashed again after Bennett criticized Netanyahu for slowing down settlement construction, the Post added.
In 2018, tensions between Netanyahu and Bennett escalated. Bennett wanted to be Defense Minister but was thwarted by Netanyahu, who then took the job for himself, Reuters reported.
Bennett announced that his party, Jewish Home, would leave Netanyahu's government. He later reneged and remained in the coalition, The Times of Israel reported.
He is a staunch opponent of a Palestinian state. While certain elements might find this outrageous at this late date, there is now a track record of many decades during which the search for some kind of way to establish one has led to naught.
Yair Lapid brings a decidedly different perspective to the triumvirate, at least regarding religion:
Yair Lapid is a former opposition leader and television anchor who has forged a coalition alliance that will, if approved by parliament Sunday, unseat Israel's longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
When Lapid founded his centrist Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party in 2012, some dismissed him as the latest in a series of media stars seeking to transform his celebrity into political success.
But his fiercely secularist party finished second with 17 seats in March elections, Israel's fourth inconclusive national vote in less than two years.
He was mandated last month to form a government after Netanyahu failed in his own efforts to build a post-election government.
Lapid cobbled together a coalition of bitter ideological rivals, ranging from right-wing religious nationalists to conservative Muslim Arab citizens of Israel, and the Knesset will either approve or scupper his bloc on Sunday.
His improbable alliance is all the more remarkable given recent intercommunal clashes between Jewish and Arab citizens, sparked by the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
Under the coalition deal, Lapid would assume the premiership only after a two-year stint at the top by his main coalition ally, nationalist hardliner Naftali Bennett.
Despite having engineered the alliance, 57-year-old Lapid would initially serve as foreign minister.
A former news anchor known for his chiselled good looks, Lapid is the Tel Aviv-born son of the fiercely secular former justice minister Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, another journalist who left the media to enter politics.
His mother, Shulamit, is a novelist, playwright and poet.
Lapid was a newspaper columnist and has also published a dozen books. His role as a presenter on Channel 2 TV boosted his stardom.
An amateur boxer and martial artist, he once featured on lists of Israel's most desirable men.
Mansour Abbas brings a religious informing of his views, but one that top-level leadership in Israel has never seen. He's a Muslim. He preached his first sermon at age 17 in a Jerusalem mosque. He's a dentist by profession, having received his education at old, established Israel universities, demonstrating that Arab Muslims have the same opportunities in Israel as Jews. He's the head of the United Arab List and represents it in the Knesset. He advocates a two-state solution, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.
They commence their project today. What will probably establish a set of assumptions among Israel's allies and foes alike is the coalition's early responses to external developments. The May conflict with Hamas is still fresh in everyone's memory, and Iran continues to burnish his bona fides as a world-stage bad actor, sending warships into the Atlantic, showing itself not to be in any kind of rush to revive the JCPOA, probably primarily because it's poised to elect a hardliner, Ebrahim Raisi, as president.
It' likely that Israel's moves in the next few weeks and months will not be any kind of sharp departure from those of the Netanyahu-led government. They will just come with a fresh perspective and a lack of baggage.
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