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Benjamin Netanyahu has made it in time for the start of the Jewish festival of lights, Hanukkah: He is back in power with a coalition of extreme right-wing and ultra-religious parties. Forty days after the last Knesset elections – the fifth general election in four years – Netanyahu, just hours before the deadline, told the President he had a majority government.
Agreements with individual parties in the coalition have not yet been signed because their demands are too extreme even for Netanyahu. The small, extreme parties know that Netanyahu cannot form a government without them.
radical demands
They demand a correspondingly high price: the legalization of gender segregation in public spaces by law, the suspension of electricity production on the Holy Shabbat, anti-LGBTQ laws, immunity for Israeli soldiers who shoot Palestinians, the high command of the police for politicians who openly racist statements about the Arab population, and even a change in the law for accused politicians so that they can hold ministerial posts despite allegations of corruption.
«Left conspiracy»
The man at the head of this government is facing corruption charges himself: Benjamin Netanyahu. He believes the trial against him is the result of a left-wing conspiracy and a biased judiciary.
However, the left has hardly existed since the last parliamentary elections at the latest. And Netanyahu has found coalition partners who will help him to undermine the judiciary or at least to control it as much as possible.
Not only in Israel
The US, Israel’s best friend and financier, has expressed concern about Netanyahu’s new government. President Joe Biden fears that far-right politicians could explode the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. However, that happened a long time ago. Since February, Israel has experienced terror attacks like it hasn’t seen in years, and is responding with an anti-terrorist campaign that is fueling even more hatred, anger and despair in the occupied territories.
Even if the decades-old Middle East conflict is rarely in the headlines, Israel’s new extreme government emerged from it. It is also a sign of the times, as the US and many other countries know. In this sense, Israel is no different from other countries that see themselves as democracies. Pointing the finger at Israel for its extreme new government is therefore inappropriate. The understanding of democracy is under pressure worldwide. Israel is just another example of this.