No ceremony; no photo: Netanyahu, Lapid hold PM-handover meeting
New PM calls session ‘good, comprehensive’; predecessor leaves him a note saying he’ll be back in 2024
Freshly reinstated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and outgoing premier Yair Lapid held a relatively short transition meeting Thursday following the swearing-in of the new government, skipping the traditional ceremony accompanying the handover of power.
The briefing came after incoming ministers took their oaths of office, with Lapid swiftly leaving the plenum without shaking his successor’s hand. Netanyahu then took the seat in the front row of the Knesset facing the podium, where Lapid — who is now opposition leader — was seated moments earlier.
The two subsequently met at the Knesset office reserved for the prime minister, with the meeting lasting some 45 minutes.
There was no statement from either Netanyahu’s or Lapid’s office on what the two discussed and no images of them together were released.
“A good, comprehensive and to the point” meeting, Netanyahu told reporters after the briefing, without further elaborating.
He said the two would continue to meet for monthly security updates that the prime minister is mandated to provide the opposition leader. Netanyahu refused to attend such meetings during much of his year-and-a-half in the opposition as he sought to delegitimize the coalition that succeeded in ousting him after 12 years in power.
Lapid, meanwhile, tweeted out a picture of a note he left for Netanyahu.
“Lapid — 2024,” read the note, which was written on stationery with the prime minister’s letterhead.
השארתי על השולחן בלשכת רה״מ. pic.twitter.com/DSlL5xP7M5
— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) December 29, 2022
The note echoed a similar handwritten letter with the words “be right back!” that was left for Naftali Bennett on the desk of the Prime Minister’s Office when he arrived to take over as premier last summer.
It was not clear whether that note was left by Netanyahu himself or one of his aides, though it likely would not have been without his approval.
According to Hebrew media reports Wednesday, neither Lapid’s nor Netanyahu’s offices pushed for the traditional handover ceremony. Likud later said the reports were wrong and that it had not been offered a change-over ceremony, but that in any case it was not interested in one.
Netanyahu refused to participate in a handover ceremony when Bennett took over Israel’s premiership in June 2021 and only held a brief, 30-minute transition meeting with him. The sit-down ended without the traditional public good wishes, without a handshake, and with no photo-op.
In June, Bennett held a warm transition ceremony for Lapid as his successor hours after the Knesset voted to disband and hold another round of elections, as per their power-sharing agreement following elections in March 2021.
Earlier Thursday, Lapid said he was passing the baton “with a sense of disquiet” as Netanyahu presented his coalition and its agenda to the Knesset. The new government is composed of Netanyahu’s Likud party along with five far-right and Haredi factions.
The incoming premier’s allies are pushing for dramatic changes that critics say could harm human rights, alienate large swaths of the citizenry, raise the risk of conflict with the Palestinians, and put Israel on a collision course with some of its closest supporters, including the United States and the American Jewish community.
Netanyahu has largely brushed off concerns over his incoming government, vowing not to harm LGBTQ and other minority rights despite the signing of coalition agreements that state otherwise and the inclusion of an anti-LGBTQ party in the government that will have control over some educational programming in schools.
Coalition agreements also include a commitment to pass a controversial High Court override law designed to reduce judicial checks on executive and legislative power, and a declarative, if somewhat vague, commitment to annex the West Bank to Israel.
In addition, the far-right Otzma Yehudit party has secured an agreement to slice off the Border Police from the Israel Police and place the force under the direct control of the new national security minister, far-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir.
The deals, if implemented, will also see far-reaching policy changes on religion and state, including enabling gender-segregated public events, restricting eligibility for Jewish immigration to Israel under the Law of Return, and increased funding for social welfare and religious education. Coalition deals are not legally binding and are not always fully implemented.
