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Bibi is back and providing fresh political land mines for US
The new government appears antithetical to American interests and values. Will Biden respond by curbing support, or will it just ‘lay low’? | Benjamin Netanyahu, already Israel’s longest serving prime minister, is back. His coalition won 64 out of 120 seats in the Knesset, a smashing victory in an era when governments have typically enjoyed narrower, wobbly majorities. ● To secure this majority, he has included a trio of radical right wing politicians: Itamar ben Gvir, leader of the Otzmah Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Tzionut HaDati (Religious Zionism) party, and Avi Maoz, who helms the Noam (“Nice”) party. This is a government with staying power, unless, as some speculate, Netanyahu intends to ditch the ultra-right parties from his coalition by luring the center-right leaders of the outgoing team. ● Ben Gvir opposes Arab-Jewish intermarriage and backs expulsion of “disloyal” Israeli Arabs and troublesome Palestinians. Under the coalition agreement now taking shape, Ben Gvir will be given a new ministerial portfolio for national security that will give him control over the national police and border guard. In this capacity, he will be able to make life difficult, if he so chooses, for Arab Israelis and residents of Jerusalem as well as West Bank Palestinians moving back and forth across the Green Line. Command of a significant guard force on the West Bank — which has been part of Central Command, the IDF component responsible for the West Bank — will be transferred to Ben Gvir. As one critic points out, this will give him his “personal police in the territories.”
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