Bennett will step down to replace Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, his ally in the unlikely opposition bloc that ended former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year rule 12 months ago. Lapid, a former journalist who leads the coalition’s largest party, will serve as caretaker Prime Minister until new elections are held. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register A vote will be held in parliament next week, after which Lapid will take over as prime minister, an official said. “I think the government did a very good job last year. It is a pity that the country has to be dragged into elections,” said Defense Minister Benny Ganj, the center-right leader of the coalition. “But we will continue to function as an interim government as much as possible,” he said. The move comes just weeks before a planned visit by US President Joe Biden, on which the government relied to help strengthen regional security ties against Israel’s longtime enemy, Iran. The future of the eight-party coalition, which includes the far right, liberals and Arab parties, looked increasingly threatened as a handful of members left, leaving it without a clear majority in parliament. As pressure on the government grows in recent days, Bennett, a former special forces commander and tech millionaire who entered national politics in 2013, said his government boosted economic growth, reduced unemployment and eliminated the deficit for the first time here. and 14 years. But he could not hold the coalition together and decided to resign before Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party tabled its own proposal to dissolve parliament. Netanyahu, who has vowed to return despite being tried for corruption, had mocked Bennett, a former close associate, by saying last week that his government had held “one of the biggest funerals in history”. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Ari Rabinovitch. Edited by Alex Richardson and Philippa Fletcher Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
