As Netanyahu's star sinks, Israel hopes for a new dawn

Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennet have their work cut out for them -- to overcome the challenges of racial tensions, a long-standing conflict with Palestine and a strong opposition.

An era has ended in Israel. After 12 years, its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was dethroned and the Israeli parliament, Knesset, formed a new government under a new leader, Naftali Bennet. June 13 was a dramatic day at the Knesset. Newly elected Prime Minister Naftali Bennet was repeatedly interrupted and loudly heckled by Netanyahu supporters as he addressed the parliament. Several of them had to be escorted out of the chamber. The man who engineered this unwieldy coalition of parties from the political right, left and centre to oust Netanyahu, Yair Lapid, cut short his prepared speech and instead said, “My mother is 86 years old and we don't ask her to come to Jerusalem lightly but we did it because I assumed that you would be able to get over yourselves and behave with statesmanship at this moment and she would see a smooth transition of government. When she was born there was no state of Israel, Tel Aviv was a small town of 30,000 people and we didn't have a parliament. I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel."