Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year run as Israel’s prime minister, the longest in the country’s history, could end Sunday if parliament votes for a new government as scheduled.
Yariv Levin, the parliament speaker and a Netanyahu ally, announced the timing of the vote Tuesday, one day after conceding a coalition of rightist, leftist, centrist and Arab parties had been formed.
Eight parties are in the fragile alliance, which had a slim majority in the 120-member Knesset. The coalition seems to have remained intact despite an aggressive campaign by Netanyahu’s followers that has included death threats and demonstrations outside the homes of legislators.
Coalition leader Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, an ultranationalist politician, are vying to unseat Netanyahu. But they must first survive Sunday’s scheduled parliamentary vote, shortly after which they would be sworn into office.
Bennett would serve as prime minister for two years, followed by the centrist Lapid.
The anticipated transition from Netanyahu comes after weeks of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in Jerusalem that sparked outbreaks of ethnic violence in Israeli cities and an 11-day war in the Gaza Strip.
