Israel’s Netanyahu must manage right-wing firebrands upon return to power

For critics, the proposed changes to the justice system to give parliament more power in appointing judges and nullifying Supreme Court rulings are an attempt to escape their legal problems at the risk of undermining the rule of law in Israel.

flames of violence

Even without the focus on his nationalist and religious allies, Netanyahu’s agenda will be vastly complicated after the worst year for violence in the West Bank since 2015 and Israel’s arch-enemy Iran rocked by a wave of social protests .

A former member of an elite special forces unit whose older brother, Yoni, was killed leading the 1976 Entebbe rescue of hijacked airmen, Netanyahu has shown little interest in the decades-old vision of a Palestinian state next to Israel.

In 2014, US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian talks stalled under his watch. With some members of religious Zionism talking openly about annexing the West Bank, dashing whatever hope remains of a Palestinian state, a resumption appears waning.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has been cautious in offering criticism, although officials including President Joe Biden have explicitly reiterated Washington’s support for a two-state solution.

For the time being, after five elections in less than four years, there is little appetite for further political upheaval, but the tensions facing his government could test the apparently stable majority it held in November. I won the elections.

Netanyahu has seen off countless opponents, often appealing to his core voter base’s innate instincts in gritty cities and ghettos away from the bright lights of fashionable Tel Aviv.

This time, with hard-right allies increasingly confident of keeping him in power, he will have to draw on all his resources as one of the most skilled operators in Israeli politics to keep his balance.

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