Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid at a signing ceremony for the Israel-Lebanon Maritime Border Deal Credit: Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)

i24 News – Israel’s outgoing Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, addressed the country’s ministers during his final cabinet meeting, the last gathering of the 36th government.

“It was a government that faced quite a few political storms, but most of all – it was a government that worked hard for the State of Israel and for the citizens of Israel,” Lapid said at the start of the meeting.

The meeting occurred amid ongoing coalition negotiations conducted by prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu. Lapid mentioned, among other things, exiting the Covid-19 pandemic under the leadership of former prime minister Naftali Bennett.

“We rescued the country from an economic crisis,” Lapid continued. “We passed a state budget after more than three years without one. We reduced the deficit and unemployment to numbers that are among the lowest in the country’s history.”

He also referenced Operation “Breaking Dawn,” Israel’s brief conflict with Gaza, which occurred over the summer, and the ongoing counter-terrorism operation “Break the Wave” in the West Bank.

“We passed the standards reform that lowered the prices of dozens of products, we raised the retirement age for women, we raised teachers’ salaries and improved their working conditions, we dramatically increased allowances for Holocaust survivors.”

Lapid concluded: “Ministers, I was honored to serve this country and its citizens together with you. We’ll be back in this room, sooner than you think.”

Analysis

Reading through Prime Minister Lapid’s statement before the meeting reminds you just how much happens in Israel in a year and a half. Of course, for better or worse, in Israel as elsewhere, success at the polls is less a function of a list of laws or accomplishments, and more a function of emotion, identity and a big-picture view of a country’s direction.