CNN
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Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday accomplished a dramatic return as Israel’s prime minister, after being sworn in as the leader of what’s likely to be the nation’s most right-wing government in historical past.
Netanyahu and his government had been sworn in on Thursday for his sixth time period as prime minister, 18 months after he was ousted from energy.
He returns with the help of a number of far-right figures as soon as consigned to the fringes of Israeli politics, after cobbling collectively a coalition shortly earlier than final week’s deadline.
Members of Netanyahu’s Likud celebration will fill some of the most necessary cupboard positions, together with international minister, protection minister and justice minister.
But a quantity of politicians from the far proper of Israel’s political spectrum had been set to be appointed to ministerial posts, regardless of controversy over their positions through the run-up to November’s election, which was gained by a Netanyahu-led bloc of ultra-nationalist and ultra-religious events.
Itamar Ben Gvir, an extremist who has been convicted for supporting terrorism and inciting anti-Arab racism, will tackle a newly expanded public safety position, renamed nationwide safety minister, overseeing police in Israel plus some police exercise in the occupied West Bank.
Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism celebration, has been named minister of finance, and has additionally been given energy to nominate the top of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), an Israeli army unit which amongst its duties handles border crossings and permits for Palestinians.
During his marketing campaign, Smotrich had proposed a collection of drastic authorized reforms, seen by many critics as a transparent approach to undercut judicial independence. This consists of dropping the flexibility to cost a public servant with fraud and breach of belief – a cost Netanyahu faces in his ongoing corruption trial.
Netanyahu has pleaded not responsible and known as that trial a “witch hunt” and an “attempted coup,” and has known as for modifications to Israel’s judiciary system.
Aryeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Sephardi celebration Shas, will serve as inside minister and minister of well being.
As the brand new ministers had been making ready to be sworn in on the Knesset, the nation’s parliament, round 2,000 demonstrators gathered outdoors to protest Netanyahu’s return to workplace, the Jerusalem Police spokesperson mentioned.
The rightward shift in the Israeli government has raised eyebrows overseas and at residence. On Wednesday, over 100 retired Israeli ambassadors and international ministry officers expressed issues about Israel’s incoming government in a signed letter to Netanyahu.
The ex-diplomats, together with 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,” studies of coverage modifications in the West Bank, and “some possible extreme and discriminatory laws” as a degree of concern.
US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides congratulated Netanyahu on Thursday, writing on Twitter: “Here’s to the rock solid US-Israel relationship and unbreakable ties.” Nides is married to Virginia Mosely, CNN US Executive Vice President for Editorial.
Biden administration officers have largely prevented addressing the ultra-right elements of the brand new Israeli government. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned final week that the US “will engage with and judge our partners in Israel on the basis of the policies they pursue, not the personalities that happen to form the government.”
Netanyahu’s slim November victory got here in the fifth Israeli election in lower than 4 years, amid a interval of protracted political chaos throughout which he has remained a dominant determine.
In his deal with to the Knesset on Thursday, Netanyahu mentioned that of the three main duties assigned to his government, the primary might be to “thwart Iran’s efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.” The second precedence can be to develop the nation’s infrastructure, together with the launching of a bullet prepare and the third can be to signal extra peace agreements with Arab nations “in order to end the Israeli-Arab conflict.”
Netanyahu was already Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, having beforehand held the publish from 2009 to 2021 and earlier than that for one time period in the late Nineteen Nineties.
Israel additionally bought its first overtly homosexual speaker of parliament on Thursday. Amir Ohana, a former minister of justice and public safety, is a member of the Knesset representing Netanyahu’s Likud celebration.
Some ultra-Orthodox lawmakers who had refused to attend his swearing-in on the Knesset seven years in the past had been amongst those that voted for him on Thursday.
Ahead of the parliamentary vote on the brand 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.”
With extra reporting by Kareem El Damanhoury
