Outgoing interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid said words of parting at his last Cabinet meeting on Sunday and listed a long line of achievements that he claimed the Bennett-Lapid-Lieberman government achieved for Israel.

“This is the last meeting of the 36th government of the State of Israel,” Lapid said. “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.”

“Relative to the short time that this government has been in office — a year and a half in total — the list of achievements of this government is extraordinary. Under the leadership of my predecessor, Naftali Bennett, this government extricated us from the COVID-19 crisis without any lockdowns.

“We rescued the country from an economic crisis. 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. We increased soldiers’ salaries by 50%, we passed the ‘From Uniform to University’ scholarship program for our soldiers.

“In Operation Breaking Dawn, we dealt a heavy blow to Islamic Jihad in Gaza and eliminated its leaders without a single Israeli being harmed. In Operation Break the Wave in Yehudah and Shomron, we dismantled the infrastructure of the Lion’s Den terrorist organization and prevented hundreds of terror attacks.

“By working very closely with the Democratic administration, we prevented the renewal of the nuclear agreement with Iran. We acted against Iranian terrorist infrastructure everywhere, including very far from Israel’s borders.

“We opened embassies and missions in the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain. We established the ‘Negev Forum,’ renewed relations with Turkey, repaired relations with Egypt and Jordan, and signed a historic agreement with Lebanon on a maritime border.

“During the visit of US President Joe Biden to Israel, we signed together with our great ally, the ‘Jerusalem Declaration,’ in which the United States made a strategic commitment to the safety, security and prosperity of Israel.

“We established the ‘Safe Path’ program which brought many achievements in the fight against crime in Arab society. We established two state commissions of inquiry, one to investigate the Har Meron disaster, the other to investigate the submarine and patrol boats’ affair.

“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.

“I’ll stop here, although the list goes on. In its short tenure, this government passed 1,613 decisions, in all areas of life, all for the benefit of the citizens of Israel. We didn’t just act for the sake of those who voted for us; we didn’t just work for our bloc or camp.

“The Israeli government has a clear role: to protect the state, uphold the law, uphold the separation of powers, protect security and the economy, protect Israel’s position in the world, protect Israel‘s democracy. We handled all these tasks with considerable success.

“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.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)