• Naftali Bennett was sworn in as Israel’s new Prime Minister, ending Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year hold on power.

• Bennett, the 49-year-old leader of the right-wing Yamina party, took oath of office after the Knesset (Parliament) elected him as the 13th Prime Minister of Israel by approval with a razor-thin majority of 60-59 in the 120-member house. One lawmaker abstained.

• His government has 27 ministers, nine of them women.

• The new government — an unprecedented coalition of ideologically divergent political parties drawn from the Right, the Left and the Centre, along with an Arab party — has a razor-thin majority in a 120-member house.

• The approval of the new government by the Knesset ended 12 years of uninterrupted rule by Netanyahu, who holds the record of being the longest-serving Prime Minister in the country’s history.

• Netanyahu - widely known as ‘Bibi’ - was Israel’s longest-serving leader, serving as prime minister since 2009 after a first term from 1996 to 1999.

• Last year, Netanyahu surpassed the record held by one of the Jewish state’s founding leaders, David Ben-Gurion.

• The formation of the new government ended the political impasse in the country that saw four elections in less than two years leading to inconclusive results.

• Bennett, a former ally turned rival of Netanyahu, is leading a fragile coalition of eight parties — Yamina, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, New Hope, Labor, Meretz, United Arab List, Kahol Lavan and Yisrael Beiteinu.

• The alliance contains parties that have vast ideological differences, and perhaps most significantly includes the first independent Arab party to be part of a potential ruling coalition, Ra’am.

• Bennett has entered into a power-sharing agreement with Centrist leader Yair Lapid, the head of the Yesh Atid party, under which the latter would take over premiership in September 2023, serving for two years till the end of the term.

• Lapid, the leader of the second-largest faction in the Knesset with 17 seats was invited by President Reuven Rivlin to form a coalition after Netanyahu, leading the Likud party with 30 seats, expressed his inability to put together a government backed by a majority of the lawmakers.

• The new government largely plans to avoid sweeping moves on hot-button international issues such as policy toward the Palestinians, and to focus instead on domestic reforms.

• Palestinians were unmoved by the change of administration, predicting that Bennett, a former defence chief who advocates annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, would pursue the same right-wing agenda as Likud party leader Netanyahu.

Relation of Gulf nations with Israel

• Last year, in a major diplomatic breakthrough, the UAE became the first Gulf country and the third in the Arab world, after Jordan and Egypt, to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

• Later, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco reached such an agreement with Israel. 

• Israel normalized relations with UAE by signing a Treaty of Peace, Diplomatic Relations and Full Normalization (September 15, 2020) and with Bahrain by signing the Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic, Peaceful and Friendly Relations (October 18, 2020). 

• On October 23, 2020, Israel, the United States and Sudan issued a joint statement announcing that Israel and Sudan have agreed to normalisation of relations. Israel and Lebanon commenced negotiations on the maritime border on October 14, 2020

• India welcomed the agreements, while reiterating “our traditional support for the Palestinian cause and hope for early resumption of direct negotiations for an acceptable two-state solution”. 

India-Israel relations

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Naftali Bennett on being sworn in as Israel’s new prime minister, and said he looked forward to meeting him and deepening their countries’ strategic partnership as they celebrate 30 years of the upgradation of diplomatic ties next year. 

• India and Israel are strategic partners. India announced its recognition of Israel on September 17, 1950. 

• Soon thereafter, the Jewish Agency established an immigration office in Bombay (Mumbai). This was later converted into a Trade Office and subsequently a Consulate. 

• Regular embassies were opened in 1992 when full diplomatic relations were established between the two countries. 

• India and Israel have established bilateral consultation mechanisms in all sectors of collaboration, including water, agriculture, counter-terrorism, and defence.

• From $200 million in 1992, bilateral merchandise trade stood at about $5 billion in 2019, with the balance of trade being in India’s favour by $1.58 billion. 

• Trade in diamonds constitutes about 50 per cent of bilateral trade. 

• India is Israel’s third-largest trade partner in Asia and seventh largest globally. In recent years, bilateral trade has diversified into several sectors such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, water, IT and telecom. 

• Major exports from India to Israel include precious stones and metals, chemical products and textiles and textile articles. Major imports from Israel include precious stones and metals, chemicals and mineral products, base metals and machinery and transport equipment.

• Under a comprehensive work plan for cooperation in agriculture signed on May 10, 2006, bilateral projects are implemented through MASHAV (Center for International Cooperation of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and CINADCO (Centre for International Agricultural Development Cooperation of Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development). Agricultural cooperation between the two sides is formalized through three-year action plans. 

• The fifth three-year work programme (2021-2023) was signed on May 24, 2021. It aims to grow existing Centres of Excellence (CoE), establish new CoEs, increase CoE’s value chain, bring the CoEs into the self-sufficient mode, and encourage private sector companies and collaboration.

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