Netanyahu: We must ‘come out of the trenches’ now that election is over, work together

The Knesset is now convening for its official memorial ceremony to mark 27 years since the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

In his speech, outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid says Rabin believed Israel’s strength was built on four pillars — the rule of law, the country’s alignment with the “technologically advanced West,” democracy and the desire for peace.

“If Israel abandons the rule of law, dismantles its democracy, takes backward progress and our ties with the international community and completely abandons the desire for peace — then it will be a weaker country and Rabin’s ideas will be buried alongside it,” he says.

He adds: “We won’t allow this to happen.”

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is set to be the next premier after his right-religious bloc won a majority in last week’s election, speaks after Lapid.

“After the elections are over… we need come out of the trenches and know how to work together,” he says.

“Differences won’t disappear, and that’s fine. We have profound disagreements on a few subjects, which need to be managed with responsibility and consideration,” he says. “It’s okay to argue, we don’t need to agree on everything, but at the same time we need to know what we do agree on — what most of us agree on.”