18TH ISRAELI KNESSET

(IsraelNN.com) Thirty-one new MKs and 89 veterans, accompanied by their invited guests, heard the addresses of President Shimon Peres and Acting Speaker Michael Eitan open the first session of the 18th Knesset, as they pledged to uphold the laws of the State.

The session opened on Tuesday afternoon with King David's Psalm 121, Shir LaMaalot, sung by the Moran-Beit Yitzchak children’s choir and composed by popular Jewish music singer Yosef Kardoner. The choir, comprising many children of immigrants from Ethiopia, later also sang “Song of the Journey to the Land of Israel.”

President Shimon Peres gave the opening address, expressing his hopes that the incoming government would be able to solve problems such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, poverty, bureaucracy, and more. He also noted his request, and that of “most of the MKs with whom I met,” that Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu form a national unity government.

The session ended with the singing of the national anthem, HaTikvah: “Our hope is not yet lost, the hope of two thousand years, to be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem.” (Read entire article)

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