Yair Lapid became Israel's interim prime minister at midnight on Friday, after the Knesset voted Thursday to dissolve itself, triggering the country's fifth election in just over three years.
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Lapid will be replacing Naftali Bennett, who had announced he would not run in the next elections, as part of their power-sharing deal.
US President Joe Biden congratulated Lapid on Twitter, saying he looked forward to seeing both Bennett and Lapid in Israel, and thanked Bennett for his "friendship over the past year."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also offered his "warmest congratulations" to the new leader.
"Congratulations to Israel's new Prime Minister Yair Lapid and thank you to outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for his leadership. The bond between the US and Israel has never been stronger and I look forward to working together on shared bilateral and regional goals," he wrote on Twitter.
At a handover ceremony with Bennett on Thursday afternoon, Lapid, who has taken over as Israel's 14 prime minister, said, "We'll do the best we can for a Jewish, democratic state, good and strong and thriving, because that is the job, and it's bigger than all of us."
Earlier, he visited the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center, honoring his late father Joseph Lapid, a Holocaust survivor.
"Immediately after the vote in the Knesset I went to Yad Vashem," Lapid later wrote on Twitter. "There I promised my late father that I will always keep Israel strong and capable of defending itself and protecting its children."
Lapid will head the caretaker government ahead of the elections, slated to take place on November 1. His first day in office will revolve around security matters, including a meeting with the head of the Shin Bet security agency and a meeting on the Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip.
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