Israeli prime minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu was set to inform president Yitzhak Herzog on Wednesday night that he has succeeded in forming a government.
The development came seven weeks after Israel’s election with parties representing 64 of the 120 members of the Knesset recommending that Mr Netanyahu, already Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, be tasked with forming his sixth government. In addition to his own right-wing Likud party the incoming coalition will comprise two ultra-Orthodox parties and three smaller far-right parties who ran together in the November 1st election as the Religious Zionism party.
The incoming government will be the most right-wing and religious Israel has known.
Mr Netanyahu made significant concessions during the coalition negotiations, handing over much of the control for the day-to-day administration of the occupied West Bank to the smaller far-right parties. The ultra-Orthodox parties have also secured key ministerial positions, policy concessions and massive budgets.
The coalition negotiations were highlighted by an unprecedented level of mistrust and mutual suspicion, prompting all the coalition partners to demand from Mr Netanyahu legislation on issues important to them before the government is sworn in.
As a result, final votes will be held next week on a Bill that will enable Arieh Deri, head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, to serve as a minister despite his two criminal convictions and on a Bill that will expand the powers of incoming national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the far-right Jewish Power party, over the police.
The mistrust also extends to Mr Netanyahu’s own Likud party where the Knesset members are fighting over remaining portfolios not handed out to the smaller coalition parties. Mr Netanyahu fast-tracked legislation to prevent Knesset members splitting from an existing party to form a new faction unless they have the support of at least one-third of the party’s parliamentarians.
The new government has promised to reduce the power of the judiciary and is likely to pass an override Bill that will limit the power of the supreme court to strike down Knesset legislation.
Biden reaction
High-tech entrepreneurs wrote a letter to Mr Netanyahu warning against “harming the court’s status, as well as harming the rights of minorities based on religion, race, gender or sexual orientation”.
Israel’s LGBTQ community has vowed to fight to preserve their rights and schools have promised to maintain enrichment programmes promoting tolerance if the government cuts funding.
US president Joe Biden is expected to follow a newly devised strategy in dealing with Mr Netanyahu once he takes office, Politico reported on Wednesday.
According to the report the plan is to serve as a means of handling the challenging ideological gap between the Democratic president and the emerging Israeli government.
“The Biden administration will hold the presumptive Israeli prime minister personally responsible for the actions of his more extreme cabinet members, especially if they lead to policies that endanger a future Palestinian state,” noted the report.
