Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday at a coalition hand-over ceremony at the President Residence that his government needed to roll up its sleeves and begin work immediately. Netanyahu said he plans to seek counsel from his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, to whom he referred as an open, attentive person, and one of the most polite, talented people in politics. My disagreements with Olmert were accompanied by mutual respect, the new prime minister said.
Netanyahu stressed in his speech that "there is nothing wrong with experience." He turned to outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and said, "I will reserve the right to turn to you, consult you, listen to your views as to the missions standing before us, and there are many of them.
The new prime minister thanked his family: "To my sons, who keep me on the ground of reality and help me stay connected to the young people's world, and to my wife Sara, the beloved mother of my children, the axis of our family life.
"You are the ones who tells me that the strength of a society is measured by the way it deals with its weak links. We'll remember that on the eve of this Passover. We don't have another country. We'll take care of it, and God willing, it will take care of us," he concluded.