Benjamin Netanyahu sworn in as Israel’s most right-wing leader

• Benjamin Netanyahu is sworn in for a sixth term as Israeli prime minister.
• He cobbled together a right-wing coalition just before the deadline last week.
• Netanyahu’s loyalists fill key cabinet positions.

Following Benjamin Netanyahu swearing-in as the head of what is probably the most right-wing administration in Israel’s history,he completed a stunning comeback as prime minister on Thursday.

18 months after being removed from office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government were sworn in for a sixth term on Thursday.

After cobbling together a coalition just before the deadline last week, he is back, supported by numerous far-right figures who were once relegated to Israel’s political periphery.

Some of the most significant cabinet positions, such as the ones for the justice and defense ministers, will be filled by Likud party members loyal to Netanyahu.

However, despite criticism surrounding their opinions prior to the election in November, which was won by a coalition of ultra-nationalist and ultra-religious parties led by Netanyahu, a number of lawmakers from Israel’s far right were due to be nominated to cabinet positions.

Itamar Ben Gvir, a radical who was found guilty of encouraging anti-Arab racism and supporting terrorism, will assume a newly expanded position in national security, replacing the title of minister of public security and taking charge of both Israeli police operations and some police operations in the occupied West Bank.

Bezalel Smotrich, the president of the Religious Zionism party, has been appointed minister of finance and has been given the authority to choose the leader of COGAT, an Israeli military division tasked with managing Palestinian border crossings and permits, among other things.

Many opponents viewed Smotrich’s succession of radical legal proposals from his campaign as a blatant attempt to undermine judicial independence.

Dropping the ability to accuse a public official of fraud and betrayal, which is a charge Netanyahu is facing in his ongoing corruption trial, is part of this.

Netanyahu entered a not-guilty plea, referred to the trial as a “witch hunt” and a “attempt at a coup,” and demanded that Israel’s judicial system be changed.

Interior and health ministers will be Aryeh Deri and the ultra-Orthodox Sephardi party Shas, respectively.

Around 2,000 protesters gathered outside the Knesset, the nation’s parliament, as the new ministers were getting ready to take the oath of office, the Jerusalem Police spokeswoman reported.

They were protesting Netanyahu‘s reelection.

Both at home and abroad, many are expressing concern over the Israeli government’s rightward turn. In a letter to Netanyahu on Wednesday, more than 100 former Israeli ambassadors and representatives of the foreign ministry voiced their worries about the upcoming administration.

The ex-diplomats, including former ambassadors to France, India, and Turkey, expressed “profound concern at the serious damage to Israel’s foreign relations, its international standing and its core interests abroad emanating from what will apparently be the policy of the incoming Government.”

The letter pointed to “statements made by potential senior office-holders in the Government and the Knesset,” reports of policy changes in the West Bank, and “some possible extreme and discriminatory laws” as a point of concern.

Netanyahu’s slim November victory came in the fifth Israeli election in less than four years, amid a period of protracted political chaos during which he has remained a dominant figure.

In his address to the Knesset on Thursday, Netanyahu said that of the three major tasks assigned to his government, the first will be to “thwart Iran’s efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.” The second priority would be to develop the country’s infrastructure, including the launching of a bullet train and the third would be to sign more peace agreements with Arab nations “in order to end the Israeli-Arab conflict.”

Netanyahu had previously served as prime minister from 2009 to 2021 and before than that for one term in the late 1990s, making him already the longest-serving leader in Israel.

On Thursday, Israel elected its first openly gay speaker of the parliament. Former minister of public safety and justice, Amir Ohana, is a Likud party representative in the Knesset.

Some ultra-Orthodox legislators who had skipped his Knesset inauguration seven years prior were among those who supported him on Thursday.

Ahead of the parliamentary vote on the new government, outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid tweeted: “We pass on to you a state in excellent condition. Try not to ruin it, we’ll be right back. The handover files are ready.”

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