JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office as Israel’s prime minister amid heckling by leftist and Arab lawmakers, offered Tuesday to seek a “permanent arrangement” for limited Palestinian self-rule.
“We do not wish to rule another people,” the conservative leader told Israel’s parliament. Without endorsing the goal of sovereignty for the Palestinians, he said he favored an accord giving them “all the powers necessary to rule themselves, except those that would threaten Israel’s existence and security.”
His remarks reaffirmed a stance at odds with the Obama administration, which advocates continued negotiations to create an independent Palestinian state, and reflected Israel’s rightward shift in the Feb. 10 election. But his message was mostly conciliatory as he became prime minister for a second time.
Voicing support for a broader U.S. objective in the region, he said Israel “strives to reach full peace with the entire Arab and Muslim world.” He added: “That yearning is supported by a joint interest of Israel and the Arab states against the fanatical obstacle” of terrorism.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas reacted with scorn. “This man doesn’t believe in peace, so how can we deal with him?” he said on Palestine Television.
Netanyahu’s address generated scant reaction in the chamber until he turned to domestic matters. From then on, heckling interrupted him frequently, starting as he lamented the decline of Israel’s educational standards. “This was the result of your doing,” said Shelly Yachimovitz, a lawmaker from the Labor Party. As finance minister early this decade, she said, Netanyahu cut education budgets.
Besides his Likud Party, Netanyahu gathered a governing coalition of three other right-wing parties, plus the left-leaning Labor Party, to hold 69 of the 120 parliament seats. To placate his new partners, he amassed the biggest Cabinet in Israel’s history.
As Netanyahu read out the names of his appointees, he was interrupted again. “Seven, eight, nine . . . ,” some lawmakers chanted as the list grew.
Israelis are accustomed to rude political discourse, but such outbursts are rare during inaugurations.
