Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government agreed

• Netanyahu’s return to power is sealed by Israel’s most right-wing government ever.
• Netanyahu won a sixth term in November’s elections.
• His coalition includes far-right parties, including one with an anti-Arab head.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power is sealed by Israel‘s most right-wing government ever.

Netanyahu won a sixth term in November’s elections.

His coalition includes far-right parties, including one with an anti-Arab head.

Palestinians believe the new government will deepen Israel’s grip on the West Bank.

“I’ve formed a government,” Netanyahu tweeted minutes before the Israeli president’s midnight deadline.

When sworn in next Monday, it will replace the outgoing caretaker government.

Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition partners reject a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian issue, which envisions a Palestinian state in the West Bank alongside Israel, with Jerusalem as their shared capital.

The leader of the Religious Zionism party, which gained the third-most members in parliament alongside two other far-right parties, wants Israel to annex the West Bank and has sweeping rights there.

1967 war: Israel occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. East Jerusalem and the West Bank have 600,000 Jewish settlers. Israel challenges international law’s illegality of their settlements. Israel evacuated Gaza in 2005.

Israeli opposition leaders and the attorney general have warned that forthcoming government measures, including allowing MPs to override Supreme Court decisions, jeopardize Israeli democracy.

Coalition allies have proposed legislative revisions that might end Netanyahu’s bribery, fraud, and breach-of-trust trial. Netanyahu claims innocence.

Israeli opposition and civil rights groups are alarmed by the incoming government’s far-right members.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), is notorious for his anti-Arab statements and has argued for looser limits on when security forces can use fire. Once convicted of bigotry and assisting a terror group, he’s set to become national security minister with responsibility over Israeli and Palestinian police.

Avi Maoz of the anti-LGBT Noam party wants to restrict Jerusalem’s Gay Pride festival and limit immigration to Israel to Jews according to Jewish law.

Netanyahu accuses critics of fearmongering and vows to maintain the status quo.

Last week, he told NPR, “I’ll have two hands on the wheel.” “I won’t let anyone mistreat LGBT people or deny Arab citizens their rights. Time will tell.”

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