Iran Press/ Middle East: Lapid will be the acting prime minister ahead of elections on November 1, with former prime minister Naftali Bennett stepping down after more than a year in a broad coalition.
This is in accordance with their coalition agreement, as the 24th Knesset dissolved Thursday night.
Lapid's first moves as prime minister revolved around security matters, including a meeting with the head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency and a meeting over the Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip, The Times of Israel reported.
US President Joe Biden sent early congratulations to the new PM of Israel, saying he looked forward to seeing both Bennett and Lapid in Israel and thanked Bennett for his "friendship over the past year."
Meanwhile, a new poll result indicated that indicate that the right-wing bloc will be large enough for Netanyahu to be prime minister once again, with 63 seats combined in the coalition.
However, this is only given the assumption that Netanyahu would work with Ayelet Shaked's Yamina party, which only manages to cross the electoral threshold with four seats.
According to the poll's results, the government could have a Netanyahu bloc with 59 seats, the Lapid bloc would have 55 seats, and the Joint List in the middle with six seats.
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