Netanyahu far-right government takes power
Already dogged by criticism at home and abroad, a new Israeli government is set to be sworn in – the final stroke in Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu’s political comeback.
Benjamin Netanyahu Photo: Abir Sultan/AP
The veteran leader, 73 and on trial for corruption charges he denies, has had to calm concerns for the fate of civil liberties, diplomacy and clean governance since his bloc of nationalist and Jewish religious parties secured a parliamentary majority in a November 1 election.
His alliance with the Religious Zionism and Jewish Power parties has stirred unease, given their opposition to Palestinian statehood and some members’ past agitation against Israel’s justice system, Arab minority and LGBTQI rights.
Fending off criticism, Netanyahu has repeatedly pledged to promote tolerance and pursue peace.
“We will establish a stable government for a full term that will take care of all Israel’s citizens,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday.
Israel’s longest-serving leader, he was prime minister for three years in the 1990s and from 2009-2021, albeit at times heading a caretaker government ahead of elections.
The new government policy outline, published on Wednesday, said it would strive for peace with all of Israel’s neighbours.
The first guiding principle listed, however, cited assertions of “exclusive and unassailable” Jewish national rights “throughout the land of Israel”, terminology that appeared to include the West Bank and East Jerusalem – among the territories that the Palestinians seek for a state.
For the Palestinians, Netanyahu’s government line-up has simply darkened an already bleak view, putting their hopes of statehood further out of reach.
Violence in the West Bank has surged this year.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday bemoaned what he called “the establishment of an Israeli government whose motto is extremism and apartheid”.
On wider diplomatic circles, Netanyahu has said he hopes for a breakthrough in forming diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia as he did in 2020 with other Gulf states that share Israel’s concerns about Iran.
Riyadh has signalled no change in its position that any progress with Israel was contingent on Palestinian statehood.
The appointment to police minister of Itamar Ben-Gvir, a West Bank settler convicted in 2007 of incitement against Arabs and support for a Jewish militant group on Israeli and United States terrorist watchlists, has stirred concern at home and abroad.
Ben-Gvir, a lawyer, says his positions have become more moderate.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, warned on Sunday against causing potential harm to individuals’ rights.
Israeli businesses have decried calls to revise the country’s anti-discrimination law.
AAP
Today is a happy day for Israel. Right-wing governments in Israel secure peace agreements, not left-wing ones – witness Begin and Sadat. Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich will mellow when invested with responsibility.. Diaspora armchair Zionists should stop kvetching and embrace the strong government that has been formed following the endorsement, by democratic procedure, of the Israeli electorate.
“Today is a happy day for Israel”. Are you speaking for every Israeli citizen or just those that share your worldview?
Well, 20% of the Israeli population are Arab-Israelis, so I guess we shouldn’t deny them representation! The coalition you are referring to was pluralist in make-up and I can’t help wishing they were in power now.
Have a look at the actual percentage of Israeli votes going to Likud and consider the desperate compromises Netanyahu has had to make to get over the line. The decisions he’s made in this regard risk so much in the way of fundamental democratic principles and the safeguarding of those principles – in regard to law and order and the judiciary in particular – and all so he can get back into power himself as an individual. Again and again I say, separate religion and state governance for the sake of society at large. And now look what has happened.
It’s incomprehensible that someone without legal charges resolved can run for Prime Minister and succeed. It certainly wouldn’t happen in Australia. Netanyahu’s political role should be suspended until he’s found guilty or innocent. And as for Deri and Ben Gvir, already with criminal records, how can they be given ministerial portfolios? It seems Israel has a very different idea of democracy and how it should work. How disappointing. And I say this as someone who, until now, would defend Israel to the hilt.
It’s interesting how AIJAC and all the other former Israeli advocate groups never had a dummy spit over the failed left wing Arab coalition particularly with Arab Israeli MPs acting more in the interests of Palestinians only when a so called right wing Govt are democratically voted by the Israeli public do they suddenly become Israeli crtitics /Useful idiots and subsequently quoted like AIJAC was by Israeli haters like the letter published in todays The Australian or the editorial in yesterdays The Australian also quoting AIJAC in a negative editorial about Israel
It is sad there is only one true Israel advocacy group now in Australia
The AAP article is seriously flawed and misleading by what it omits, not only by what it falsely claims, and has been overtaken by recent events.. No mention of the HKOP ( Hashemite Kingdon of Palestine) initiative by Saudi Arabia , as an alternative to the nonexistent 2 state solution and Netanyahu’s successful previous relationship with Saudi and support for it. You can read the detailed Saudi Plan for HKOPS published in English on 8 June 2022 in the Saudi-Government-controlled Al-Arabiya News at: The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine | In Translation (alarabiya.net) https://english.alarabiya.net/in-translation/2022/06/08/The-Hashemite-Kingdom-of-Palestine?fbclid=IwAR2U4b6Hq64Sldrf4wBK9grjUIK92ePjmUTJoFcAqXEzJhSEwaatQfCHlMw If ‘Palestine will be free from the river to the sea’ where is the second of the 2 states.