Netanyahu rises to Elon Musk's defense after X owner accused of performing Nazi salute

[Celerity]

44. Israel swears in Netanyahu as prime minister, most right-wing government in country's history

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/israel-swears-in-netanyahu-as-prime-minister-most-right-wing-government-in-countrys-history

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Thursday swore in Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister of the most right-wing and religiously conservative government in the country’s history. Netanyahu took the oath of office moments after Israel’s parliament, or Knesset, passed a vote of confidence in his new government.

The coalition, made up of Jewish ultranationalist and religious parties, has already prompted an unprecedented uproar from Israeli society, including the country’s defense establishment, businesses, LGBTQ community, secular Jews and others. The new government has promised to curb the power of the country’s independent judiciary and expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank that will deepen the conflict with the Palestinians.

READ MORE: Netanyahu’s government vows to expand West Bank settlements, annex occupied territory

After over a year in opposition, Netanyahu secured a comeback in the latest election – the nation’s fifth in less than four years – to extend his record-setting tenure as prime minister.

Netanyahu’s new government has pledged to prioritize settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, extend massive subsidies to his ultra-Orthodox allies and push for sweeping reform of the judicial system that could endanger the country’s democratic institutions.

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Israel’s new right-wing government is even more extreme than protests would have you think

Nationalist, exclusionist, and far, far right: The most extreme Israeli government in the nation’s history has taken shape.

https://www.vox.com/world/2023/1/20/23561464/israel-new-right-wing-government-extreme-protests-netanyahu-biden-ben-gvir

The policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s newly sworn-in governing coalition brought out 80,000 protesters over the weekend in Tel Aviv. The protesters were largely focused on the government’s proposals to overhaul the judicial system, which could weaken the country’s democracy and separation of powers. But the effects of the policies on the 1.6 million Palestinian citizens of Israel and the 5.2 million Palestinians living in the occupied territories will be catastrophic, building upon years of policies that Israeli human rights organizations say constitute crimes against humanity.

The human rights defenders and experts in Israeli politics I spoke with emphasized that this government is not a departure from previous ones — indeed, it’s Netanyahu’s sixth time leading the country. Rather, it’s a culmination of Israeli politics drifting farther and farther to the right, and decades longer of policies that amount to de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank, and policies of Jewish supremacy. What’s different now, however, is how clearly these ideas are stated in the new government’s coalition guidelines and by prominent ministers about the fundamentals of how the country runs.

As US national security adviser Jake Sullivan meets Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week, there are serious questions of how the Biden administration will cooperate with an Israeli government that has scratched off its liberal veneer and thrown away any pretense of negotiations toward a Palestinian state. (Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to travel to the Middle East soon, too.)



The new Israeli government is a turn from a brief centrist government last year, now seeking to implement policies that are anti-Palestinian and anti-liberal. But it’s certainly not the first Israeli government to do so. “It’s key not to pretend, as many seem to already be doing, that it’ll somehow be a sudden departure from Israeli quote-unquote ‘democracy,’” says Hagai El-Ad, executive director of the Israeli watchdog B’Tselem. “What worries me is that even this level of clarity will not be sufficient to trigger an adequate international response.”

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Netanyahu's judicial overhaul would "destroy" Israel's democracy, former Israeli prime minister says