Israel Set to Swear in New Government
Voice of America
WASHINGTON - Israel is set on Sunday to swear in a new government, ending the 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and making Naftali Bennett, the head of a small, religious ultranationalist party, the new leader of the Jewish state.
Bennett will be prime minister for two years, under an unlikely power-sharing agreement among eight political parties with little in common other than wanting to end the tumultuous tenure of Netanyahu. Bennett is a former Netanyahu ally who served as his defense minister in 2019 and 2020. Then, Bennett, 49, will be replaced for two years by Yair Lapid, 57, a one-time finance minister and former TV news anchor who brokered the deal to oust Netanyahu. Lapid won the second-biggest vote total behind Netanyahu’s Likud party last March, the fourth indecisive Israeli election in the last two years.Police officers stop and search people near Victoria Park, Hong Kong's traditional venue for the annual 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown vigil, in Hong Kong, June 4, 2024. People gather near a soccer field which in previous years had been used annually for vigils to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, at Victoria Park, Hong Kong, June 4, 2024. This year, the venue was blocked off for a carnival by pro-government groups. (Cindy Sui/VOA) A carnival worker tells members of the public they cannot enter the restricted area until later in the day, at Victoria Park, Hong Kong, June 4, 2024. (Cindy Sui/VOA) A carnival worker guards the perimeter of a closed-off soccer field which traditionally had been used for Tiananmen Square crackdown commemorations, at Victoria Park, Hong Kong, June 4, 2024. (Cindy Sui/VOA)
A French gendarme walks past the logo of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in front of the National Assembly in Paris, May 2, 2024. FILE - A gendarme of the French National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) takes part in a drill, as part of the preparation for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games, near Paris, April 26, 2024.
FILE - In this photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, South Korean army soldiers, wearing helmets, prepare to cross the Military Demarcation Line as North Korean army soldiers stand inside the Demilitarized Zone in Cheorwon, on Dec. 12, 2018. FILE - This handout photo taken by the South Korean Defense Ministry between the night of June 1 and 2, 2024 and released on June 2, 2024 shows South Korean military officers check unidentified objects believed to be North Korean trash from balloons.
Supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), celebrate after a high court in Pakistan overturned Khan's conviction on charges of leaking state secrets, in Karachi, Pakistan, June 3, 2024. FILE - Shah Mahmood Qureshi, center, a top leader of Pakistan's former prime pinister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, leaves with his lawyers after appearing in a court in his case, in Lahore, Pakistan, Aug. 8, 2023. FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 24, 2022. (Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via Reuters)
Police keep watch on a street in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong on June 4, 2024. FILE - In this June 4, 2020, file photo, from left, pro-democracy activists Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang Tung, and Cheung Man-kwong attend a gathering to mourn for those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown at Victoria Park, in Hong Kong. FILE - A dissident Chinese student speaks to soldiers as crowds gather in central Beijing on June 3, 1989. Performance artist Sanmu Chen gestures to trace the Chinese characters of 8964 referring to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, along the Causeway Bay in Hong Kong on June 3, 2024 on the eve of the 35th anniversary of Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, June 3, 2024. A Palestinian child pulls water containers, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in southern Gaza City, June 3, 2024. A Palestinian man holds the hand of a little boy as they walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip on June 3, 2024.