Thread by @AnshelPfeffer

All the leaders of the 8 parties of the new coalition now in their last meeting before the confidence vote. All eyes on Mansour Abbas whose colleague Said al-Haroumi threatened this morning to vote against. Abbas: “don’t worry, there will be a government.” They all look confident

Coalition party leaders meeting over. They all still seem very confident that the vote will pass today. “There’s a government! There’s a government!” Mansour Abbas cries in all directions.

Netanyahu just arrived in the Knesset and went without a word in to the PM’s parliamentary office. For the last time?

Forest fires west of Jerusalem have closed Highway One. Police are extricating MKs from the traffic-jam so they can make the confidence vote on time.

Confidence vote debate begins in the Knesset

Bennett called up to make his speech as “prime minister-designate” amid cries of “shame!” from the ultra-orthodox and far-right MKs

More cries of “crook!” against Bennett who hasn’t even begun talking. Far-right MKs who were not that long ago his colleagues now being removed from the plenum by the speaker

Bennett begins his speech by thanking “outgoing prime minister” Netanyahu for his service to Israel. It doesn’t sound like it’s mollifying the far-right MKs who continue to heckle him. Bennett looks very nervous. Netanyahu still sitting in the PM’s chair seems to be enjoying this

Bennett begins by listing the challenges facing Israel, starting with the “Iranian nuclear program that has reached a critical juncture” but stops due to heckling and says “our forefathers couldn’t have imagined we would be arguing in a sovereign parliament. I’m proud of this”

Bennett continues crossly: “these quarrels between the people who should have been running the country brought about the government’s paralysis, just like we’re seeing here right now.” Heckling continuing. “The volume of the shouting here is like the lack of governance under you”

Bennett: “As we can see here now in the parliament of the state of the Jews, Jews are a nation with views. Anyone who has seen students studying Talmud together will have seen. But sometimes the argument gets out of control and it threatens all we’ve built in labor and blood”

Bennett likens the heckling MKs to the Jewish fanatics of the Great Rebel against the Romans 2000 years - “we have to work together at this critical historic moment. You planned for us to go to election after election, that’s how you break up a country. It’s not an option”

Bennett: “We stopped the train a moment before the ravine” - thanks Yair Lapid for “showing generosity and national responsibility. Without him, we wouldn’t be sitting here now. The hour has come for responsible leaders from the different parts of the nation”

Bennett: “What’s happening here is basically democracy. A new government is replacing the previous one. That’s the way it should be” Says the government will represent all of Israel from “Ofra (West Bank settlement) to Tel-Aviv. From Rabat (Negev Bedouin town) to Kiryat Shmona”

Bennett going now through the shopping list of his new government’s policies. He’s beginning to enjoy himself. There was a moment during the heckling where he seemed to realize that it was a sign the Netanyahu bloc don’t have anything else against him. Suddenly he relaxed.

Bennett: “We will begin a new chapter with Arab Israelis… Ra’am lead by Mansour Abbas will be part of the government. I have to give full credit here to Netanyahu who blazed a path by negotiating with him” (credit to Bennett for saying that bit with a straight face”

Bennett: “renewing the Iranian nuclear agreement is a mistake. Israel won’t allow Iran to have nuclear weapons. We hope there will be quiet from Hamas, but they attack, they will meet an iron wall”

Bennett: “I would like to thank POTUS Joe Biden for his support during Operation Guardian of the Walls and his deep support for Israel of many years” Quotes Biden saying “there will be peace only when the region recognizes the Jewish state” & says Israel-US ties are “bipartisan”

Bennett: “The date for change of prime ministers (with Lapid) is August 27, 2023” but will his government last that long? Ends his speech with a verse from Psalms “May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels."

After Bennet, it’s Lapid’s turn to speak. He goes up and says he won’t make the speech he prepared and apologizes to his mother for bringing her all the way to Jerusalem at her age to see such a spectacle. Now it’s Netanyahu’s turn to respond.

Netanyahu speaking the last time as prime minister. “I stand here in the name of millions of citizens who chose a path of raising their head, not lowering it. For them I plan to continue the big mission of my life, to ensure the existence, security and prosperity of Israel”

Netanyahu now giving a potted version of his life-story, starting with the times he was wounded in action in Sayeret Matkal, as a diplomat and politician. “I worked nights as days, literally, for out nation.” Sounds like a valedictorian speech.

Netanyahu now talking about how “we brought vaccines to Israel thanks to the position we built for Israel” - basically this is a bit from his last election stump speech. “We fought Iran’s plans to acquire nuclear arms, even when we stood along against the world”

Netanyahu now on the “Abraham accords”: “We changed the dangerous idea of ‘peace for land’ to ‘peace for peace’”

Netanyahu now extolling his own “close and personal relationship with the President of Russia which allowed us a free hand to operate on our northern border”

Netanyahu: “We stood up to waves of populism” (he’s talking about the natural gas deal where his government gave the extraction rights to the private sector for a song) and then gets Santayana mixed-up saying “a nation that doesn’t remember its future doesn’t remember its past”

Netanyahu now praising “our different security policy, a more aggressive policy, which refrains from haste and impulsiveness” which lead to Israel’s lowest casualty rates ever over the last decade. “Our achievements transformed Israel from a marginal country to a rising force”

Netanyahu: “If our fate is to go to the opposition. We will do so with straight backs and serve the nation there until we topple this dangerous government”

Netanyahu: speaking of “my friend of 40 years Joe Biden” says that “the new US Administration asked me to keep our disagreements on the nuclear agreement private but I can’t do that. You know why? Because in the Holocaust, FDR refused to bomb Auschwitz. We were on our own”

Netanyahu: “Bennett hasn’t got the international standing, the integrity, the capability, the knowledge and he hasn’t got the government to oppose the nuclear agreement. That is the biggest problem. An Israeli PM needs to be able to say No to the leader of the world’s superpower”

Netanyahu: “The new government needs to carry out significant operations in Iran to block the continued armament. But they can’t. At the most they will say some weak things here. Iran knows this. They’re rejoicing today. They understand that from now Israel has a weak government”

Netanyahu: “I have a message for those rejoicing in Iran. The opposition in Israel has a load and strong voice. And I have another message for them: We’ll Be Back! (says this in English).”

Netanyahu now bringing up the issue of the US Consulate to the Palestinians which was closed by Trump. “I told the Americans, if you want to reopen it, do it in Abu Dis! Not in sovereign Jerusalem! Do you think this government will do that? They’re pretend-right. They’ll tweet”

Netanyahu: “I have experience in this. I’ve come back twice from the opposition.”

Netanyahu: “I have one small request. Try not to ruin the wonderful economy we are leaving you so we don’t have to work too hard fixing it when we come back soon.”

Netanyahu has a quote of his own from Psalms: “Their mouths are full of lies, and their right hands are deceitful”

Netanyahu’s basically a frustrated copyrighter. He’s invented a new name for this coalition “the Ra’anana-Marana government”
Ra’anana = Bennett’s hometown
Marana = female Labor Arab MK

Netanyahu has no good wishes or words of encouragement for the new government of Israel. Instead he ends his last speech as prime minister promising “to fight every day to bring down this dangerous left-wing government and it will happen much sooner than you think”

Thanks Danny for reminding us of today’s more important news 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

https://twitter.com/DannyCohen/status/1404083533812019208

Boring party statements now. Starting with concentrated sycophancy from Likud’s Yoav Kisch

Netanyahu does a little walkabout in the plenum, glad-handling Likudniks. Interestingly, he ignores Nir Barkat whose already launched his own unofficial Likud leadership campaign.

After all the angry speeches, Labor leader and incoming transport minister Merav Michaeli manages to appeal to the Knesset members better nature and even make the ultra-Orthodox leaders laugh by asking whether she could be considered in the future as a member of Degel Ha’Torah..

Mansour Abbas is delivering Ra’am’s statement in the confidence vote debate. He begins by teasing the Likud MKs “I’ve promised not to say anything about the talks we had”

Benny Gantz making last speech in debate before the vote to appoint a new Knesset Speaker, preceding confidence vote. He’ll remain defense minister in the new government but no longer “alternate prime minister.” At least he can now call Netanyahu “incoming leader of opposition”

Yair Lapid proposes Yesh Atid’s Mickey Levi as new Knesset Speaker. The outgoing coalition have proposed Shas’ Yaakov Margi. First test for the new government, taking control of the Knesset, before the confidence vote. Vote will be held by roll-call on each candidate separately.

No surprises so far. Margi got all the votes of the soon-to-be opposition, not including the Joint List - 52. Now to see if the new government has the numbers to elect Levi the new speaker and then to pass the confidence vote.

Some of the Joint List MKs (who won’t support the new government) are voting for Levi as speaker, indicating perhaps some sort of future relationship with the new coalition

Mickey Levi, former Jerusalem Police Chief and one of Yesh Atid’s more aggressive MKs is not the first Knesset Speaker in 12 years not from Likud. 67-52. 1 abstention of Yamina defector Shikli. All Joint List voted for Levi and it looks like the coalition will have its 61 votes.

Levi foregoes his inaugural speech as new speaker as one of the MKs came from hospital and has to go back. That’s how close it is. And now on to the confidence vote. By roll call.

So far the vote is going as expected, with the exception of Ra’am’s Said al-Haroumi being absent. He’s probably waiting for the second round of the roll-call. Probably

An ashen-faced Netanyahu votes “against” the new government.

At the end of first roll-call, 53 voted against the new government. Now Al-Haroumi abstains in the second roll-call. So the new government will have only 60 votes. And the Joint List are voting against. Looks like 60-59 for the new government. Passed. No full majority. Bad look.

The new government has won the vote but by the smallest majority of any Israeli government ever and with just half the Knesset members voting in favor. Naftali Bennett is about to be sworn in as PM but it will be hard for the government to claim legitimacy.

And in an anticlimactic and far from festive vote, the Netanyahu era ends.

Netanyahu walks around the plenum like a caged lion. Finally walks back to the prime minister’s chair for the last time, before sitting, he gives Bennett a short handshake without words. A Knesset usher comes up to him and asks him to move. Netanyahu’s looking for his new seat.

Netanyahu sits in the leader of the opposition’s seat before Yair Lapid even has time to remove his papers from the desk. Likud MKs coming to him to commiserate. Bennett waiting to be sworn in. The government front-bench now empty.

Correction. It wasn’t an usher. It was outgoing Speaker Levin who tapped Netanyahu’s shoulder and told him to leave the PM’s chair.

And that’s it, Naftali Bennett is swearing loyalty as the 13th prime minister of Israel. Get used to saying “former prime minister Netanyahu”

As Lapid is sworn-in as foreign minister and alternat-prime minister, Netanyahu leaves the Knesset floor. It’s over for him. Accompanying him out of the plenum now a much smaller team of bodyguards.

I still think Netanyahu is leaving tonight a winner haaretz.com/israel-news/.p…

Nitzan Horowitz and Tamar Zandberg just sworn in as new ministers. Meretz is back in government after an absence of 20 years.

Apparently Netanyahu is going against tradition and will not attend a handover ceremony tomorrow morning at the prime minister’s office with Bennett. He’ll meet him for a private update meeting in the afternoon but that’s it.