Right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu is a master of political survival. His coalition, which relies on extreme right and extreme religious parties, won the November elections and now the government has taken its oath of office.
– He is very skilled at breaking down his opponents.
This is how a professor at the University of Helsinki who is familiar with Israeli politics sums it up Hannu Juusola. According to him, Benjamin Netanyahu is an excellent example of a populist politician of our time, whose nationalist message fits the trends of the moment.
Benjamin Netanyahu faced bribery and corruption charges during the election campaign and, despite everything, managed to keep his basic supporters on his side and gain the trust of the Israelis in the elections.
– He is charismatic. Netanyahu sends a message to his supporters that he is always the target of persecution. He feeds a populist image of the people and the left-wing elite that opposes it.
According to Hannu Juusola, Benjamin Netanyahu’s sixth government steers Israel’s politics most clearly to the right of all the country’s governments so far. That ideologically very united right-wing government.
– It is very nationalistic and it also has anti-democratic aspirations.
Rainbow people scared
When the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, had the inauguration session of the government on Thursday, outside the demonstration shouted that “we don’t want fascists in the Knesset”.
Demonstrators waved rainbow flags. Israel’s LGBTQ minority is genuinely afraid of the new government.
The fear has arisen because a few representatives of an extremist religious party suggest that, among other things, doctors and the owners of some stores would be allowed to discriminate against people belonging to the LGBTQ minority under the law.
In extreme religious circles, discrimination can be justified by referring to faith.
– There are indeed people in the government front whose attitude towards sexual minorities and also the position of women is questionable, says Hannu Juusola.
Israel has been politically right-wing for quite some time now. The left has melted into almost non-existence. At the same time, the attitude towards the occupied Palestinian territories has also become stronger all the time.
The Supreme Court in the teeth of the right
– This government will strengthen the development in which Israel’s grip on all the occupied territories will tighten. This makes hopes for peace agreements impossible.
This development is also connected to an essential part of the anti-democracy mentioned by Hannu Juusola. It manifests itself most strongly in the desire of the right, and especially the extreme right, to weaken the position of the Supreme Court.
– For them, the Supreme Court has been a bastion of liberal democracy. They have been fighting it for a long time.
Professor Hannu Juusola says that the idea behind the fight is to try to strip soldiers and other members of the security apparatus of responsibility for any use of violence in occupied areas.
One of the goals of the extreme right is also that they want to break up the unity related to the security apparatus and have parts of, for example, the police under their own responsibility.
– Weakening the position of the Supreme Court and taking over parts of the security apparatus are part of a development that can be said to endanger Israel’s democracy. Here we are on the road to Hungary.
There will be violence in the occupied territories
One of the key goals of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is to continue and expand the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The hold on the occupied territories will be strengthened and its consequences are already known.
– When the settlers’ attacks on the Palestinians increase, it strengthens the violent development among the Palestinians. Violence in the occupied territories is increasing.
The only stop to this development would be the role of the international community. Hannu Juusola does not attach much importance to it. Among other things, the European Union will not set up a broad boycott against the Israeli government.
– It has not been part of the spirit of the game. I wouldn’t count on it.
Hannu Juusola, an expert on Israeli politics, estimates that Netanyahu wants to give his own opposition and the world an image that he himself is a balancing force in the government as a guard against extremist forces.
In its foreign policy, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government continues on the old line. Eliminating Iran’s nuclear deterrence is the most central tenet.
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