JERUSALEM (AP) — Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in Thursday, heading the most right-wing, religiously conservative government in Israel’s history and pledging to adopt policies that could galvanize national and regional discontent and alienate the country’s closest allies.
Netanyahu was sworn in moments after parliament voted a vote of confidence in his new government. His return marks his sixth term, continuing his more than decade-long dominance over Israeli politics.
His new government pledged to prioritize expanding the deal in the occupied West Bank, providing large subsidies to its ultra-Orthodox allies, and pushing for a sweeping reform of the judiciary that could jeopardize the country’s democratic institutions. The plans sparked an unprecedented outcry in Israeli society. , adding the military, LGBTQ rights groups, the business network, and others.
Netanyahu is the country’s longest-serving prime minister, having served from 2009 to 2021 and a season in the 1990s. He was expelled from the workplace last year after 4 stalled elections through a coalition of 8 parties united only in their opposition to his government.
Despite his return to politics, he continues to be tried for fraud, failure to accept as true and accept bribes in 3 corruption cases. He denies all fees opposed to him, saying he is the victim of a witch hunt orchestrated through hostile means. police and prosecutors.
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The varied but fragile coalition that toppled Netanyahu collapsed in June, with Netanyahu and his ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox allies securing a transparent parliamentary majority in November’s elections.
“I hear the constant cries of the opposition about the end of the country and democracy,” Netanyahu said after taking the podium in parliament ahead of the official government swearing-in Thursday afternoon. His speech was interrupted several times by boos and ridicule from the opposition. leaders, who chanted “weak. “
“Members of the opposition: squandering in elections is the end of democracy, it is the essence of democracy,” he said.
Netanyahu heads a government composed of a hardline ultranationalist party ruled by West Bank settlers, two ultra-Orthodox parties and his nationalist Likud party.
Its allies are pushing for dramatic adjustments that may alienate large sections of the Israeli public, escalate confrontation with the Palestinians and put Israel on a collision course with some of its closest supporters, adding to the United States and American Jewry.
Netanyahu’s governing platform claims that “other Jewish people have exclusive and undeniable rights” over the entirety of Israel and the Palestinian territories and promises to advance the structure of the deal in the occupied West Bank. This includes legalizing dozens of wild outposts and a promise to annex the entire territory, a step that would attract strong foreign opposition through the destruction of any remaining hopes of a Palestinian state and fuel calls that Israel is an apartheid state if millions of Palestinians are not granted citizenship.
Netanyahu’s previous administrations have been staunch supporters of Israel’s deal deals in the West Bank, and this will only accelerate with the new government.
Israel captured the West Bank in 1967 along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, territories the Palestinians seek for a long-term state. Israel has built dozens of Jewish settlements housing some 500,000 Israelis living alongside some 2. 5 million Palestinians.
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Most of the foreign network considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal and an impediment to peace with the Palestinians. The United States has already warned the new government that it opposes any move that could further undermine hopes for an independent Palestinian state.
The White House National Security Council said Thursday it “supports policies that jeopardize the viability of a two-state solution or contradict our mutual interests and values. “
“We have policies that promote Israel’s security and regional integration, a two-state solution and lead to equivalent measures of security, prosperity and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians,” he added.
Israel’s new government has also expressed its considerations about rolling back minority and LGBTQ rights. In front of parliament, several thousand protesters waved Israeli Pride and rainbow flags. “We don’t need fascists in the Knesset!” They sang
Earlier this week, two members of the Zionism party said they would propose an amendment to the country’s anti-discrimination law that would allow businesses and doctors to discriminate against those who oppose the LGBTQ network on the basis of faith.
These comments, along with the ruling coalition’s largely anti-LGBTQ stance, have raised fears that the new administration could compromise their limited rights. Netanyahu has tried to dispel those considerations by promising not to harm LGBTQ rights.
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Netanyahu loyalist Amir Ohana, who is blatantly gay, elected speaker of parliament in full view of his wife and two children. On stage, he turned to them and promised that the new government would respect everyone. This speaker, he will not harm any child or any other family, period,” he said.
Yair Lapid, the outgoing prime minister who will now assume the name of opposition leader, told parliament he would hand over to the new government “a country in the right conditions, with a strong economy, with advanced defensive functions and strong deterrence, with one of the most productive foreign ratings of all time.
“Try to destroy it. We will be back soon,” Lapid said.
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Associated Press editors Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.