Israel's parliament approved a new government on Sunday, ending the record 12-year tenure of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister and swearing in a fragile, diverse coalition that has promised to break the country's political gridlock.
Israel elects new prime minister
STEPANAKERT , JUNE 14, ARTSAKHPRESS: The change came by the slimmest of margins, with 60 votes in favor and 59 opposed in Israel's 120-member Knesset. One member abstained, USA Today reports.
Far-right politician Naftali Bennett, who once worked for Netanyahu, becomes Israel's new prime minister for two years in a coalition agreement that includes eight separate parties and is led by Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid.
Lapid will serve as foreign minister and become prime minister after Bennett's two-year stint.
"It really is the end of an era," said Ihan Goldenberg, director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank.
