'Be right back', Netanyahu writes in his leaving note to successor: Reports

Derisive and dismissive of the incoming leadership, Benjamin Netanyahu in June 2021 in a handover note left for his successor in the Prime Minister's office, Naftali Bennett, wrote, "Be right back", according to media reports.

Netanyahu, 73, scored an emphatic victory at polls last week making a comeback when elections were held last Tuesday, the fifth in less than four years, after Bennett's government fell under the pressure of ideological differences among the loosely grouped eight parties drawn from the Left, Centre and Right, along with an Arab party.

Netanyahu continuously challenged the legitimacy of the government, charging his successor and his allies of having "stolen" the mandate, making several analysts dub him a "sore loser".

 

Some commentators criticised Netanyahu then for his apparent lack of decorum, noting that previous transfers of power had been more courteous.

In new revelations, Channel 12 news on Friday published a photo of a note that was left for Bennett on the desk of the Prime Minister's Office when he arrived there to take over.

The note, scribbled in blue pen, included a simple drawing of an Israeli flag, with its Star of David, and the words: Be right back!, Times of Israel reported.