Dn his inaugural speech to the Knesset on December 29, Benyamin Netanyahu was very clear: “The first mission of my government, he said, will be to prevent Iran from developing an arsenal of bombs nuclear weapons that would threaten us and the whole world. He has therefore appointed to key positions two men who fully share his vision.
First, Ron Dermer. Little known to the general public, this Israeli-American has worked for more than two decades with the Prime Minister, of whom he is one of the closest advisers. Israeli Ambassador to Washington, Dermer played a key role in organizing Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress in 2015. A speech in which the head of the Israeli government radically denounced the Iranian nuclear agreement negotiated by then US President Barack Obama. It was he too who paved the way for the Abraham Accords, by multiplying behind-the-scenes meetings with Arab ambassadors stationed in the American federal capital.
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Today, the game is over behind the scenes or on the American stage alone. Ron Dermer is indeed in Jerusalem where he has just been appointed Minister of Strategic Affairs, with an unambiguous roadmap: do everything diplomatically to prevent a nuclear Iran…
Judges very worried
The other personality in charge of carrying out this mission is called Tsakhi Hanegbi. Another faithful among the faithful of Binyamin Netanyahu. During the last election campaign, he was at work on all the television sets with a roadmap: to defend the leader of the opposition at all costs. Today, at 65, this former Likud deputy, several times minister, finds himself at the head of the National Security Council. A simple reward for good and loyal service? Not only.
Indeed, in an article published a few days before the swearing in of the government, Tsakhi Hanegbi had affirmed that the first of the dossiers which the new cabinet would deal with as soon as it took office would be that of Iranian nuclear installations. “In Israel, everyone agrees on one thing: the urgent need to urge the free world, led by the leader of the United States, to act by any means necessary to defeat Iran’s nuclear program, while there is still time. If the world remains deaf, Netanyahu has often stressed Israel’s right to defend itself. Tsahi Hanegbi is convinced of this: “What prompted the Prime Minister to return to power was not the cancellation of his trial but the need to finish the job with Iran. In my opinion, the inner flame that animates Netanyahu is made up of his efforts to defeat the immense danger posed to Israel by Iran’s nuclear power. This has been its mission for more than twenty years. And today, it is approaching the decisive phase. »
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On the domestic scene, the strong man of the new government is the Minister of Justice, Yaron Levin. He too, Netanyahu’s trusted man who had asked him to negotiate the coalition agreements. His mission is to transform the judicial system by removing constitutional power from the Supreme Court, of which he is the declared adversary. “It would be tantamount to a change of regime”, affirms the opposition which supports the judges, very worried about the future of Israeli democracy.
Many lawyers took part in the pro-democracy demonstrations organized this Thursday in front of the Knesset and in Tel Aviv. Among the demonstrators, lawyer Gilad Sheer: “The attacks on the Supreme Court, he told us, are terrible. There is currently a separation of powers between the legislature, the judiciary and the executive. We cannot undo this separation which is at the heart of liberal democracy. »
“My government will develop the settlement”
24 hours before the inauguration of his government, Benyamin Netanyahu tweeted: “The Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right to the land of Israel. My government will expand settlement everywhere, including Judea and Samaria. That is to say in the West Bank.
This dossier has been entrusted to the leader of the religious extreme right, President of Religious Zionism, Bezalel Smotrich, who, in addition to the Finance portfolio, receives a ministerial post in Defense, with responsibility for the civil administration of the Palestinian territories. A whole program for this fervent annexationist who himself lives in a colony. His associate, the Kahanist Itamar Ben-Gvir, from Kiriyat Arba, the large settlement near Hebron, has had all his wishes granted. He is Minister of National Security where he will define the strategy of the police. As a bonus, he receives the direction of the corps of 8,000 border guards, several companies of which are deployed in the West Bank.
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The concessions granted by Benyamin Netanyahu to the Torah Judaism and Shass parties confirm the ultra-conservative turn of the Israeli political scene. The rabbis obtained the cancellation of all the liberal reforms adopted under the previous legislature. It remains to be seen whether the whole of Israeli society will follow.