Nearly two months since winning the Israeli election, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formed a new government cobbled together with six parties.
“I wanted to inform you that, thanks to the immense public support we won in the elections, I have managed to set up a government which will take care of all the citizens of Israel. And I of course intend to establish it as quickly as possible,” Netanyahu claimed during a phone call with Israel’s president Isaac Herzog that was released on Twitter Wednesday night.
Netanyahu has been busy wrangling disparate right-leaning and religious parties since Israelis first went to the polls on November 1. Filling out the right-leaning coalition will be Otzma Yehudit, Noam, Religious Zionism, and erstwhile ultra-Orthodox Netanyahu allies United Torah Judaism as well as Shas.
However, it took Netanyahu seven weeks to hammer out the details which often involve political horsetrading for prestigious positions in the government including Defense, Justice, and Interior.
Although Netanyahu’s Likud Party will represent the left-leaning wing of the coalition, Bibi’s political maneuvering in recent weeks to cobble a majority of seats together in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has drawn international criticism.
Otzma Yehudit, led by the controversial Itamar Ben-Gvir, won six crucial seats in the Knesset paving the leadership entrance into mainstream Israeli politics. Earlier in his life, Ben-Gvir was an avid supporter of the Kach Party which has been banned in Israel and his politics were deemed so radical that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) barred him from serving despite the nation’s policy of mandatory conscription.
Last week, Netanyahu drew more consternation when he contemplated appointing Shas leader Aryeh Deri to the prominent post of Interior Minister despite the latter being recently convicted of tax fraud.
Netanyahu had previously served two uninterrupted stints as Prime Minister, first between 1996 and 1999 and, more recently, from 2009-2021 when a surprise coalition government including Arab Israelis kept him out of office for 18 months.