Israel: far-right ‘exploits’ Netanyahu with coalition conditions 

Far-right Israeli parties Jewish Power and Religious Zionism, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich respectively, are “exploiting” Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu with their conditions to join the government coalition, Al-Resalah reported on Tuesday.

“Extremist Israeli parties are exploiting Netanyahu to get sovereign ministries at the expense of the Likud,” Israeli affairs specialist Ayman Al-Rafati was quoted as saying. “They insist on getting the defence ministry and interior ministry.”

According to analyst Said Bsharat, “The mission of forming the government coalition should be easy, but the ideology of Netanyahu’s partners and their desire to fulfil a criminal agenda obstruct Netanyahu’s efforts.”

He added that the persistence of the far-right parties in order to get control of the ministries might lead to Netanyahu’s failure. “Netanyahu has been going around in a vicious circle. While his partners insist on the sovereign ministries, the Likud will not accept having the crumbs.” He believes that a yet another General Election will be inevitable.

READ: Israel new government should act against rights groups, says far-right MK

“However,” said Al-Rafati, “Netanyahu is cunning. He is running slow talks with the far-right parties. He is putting pressure on them and leading them to take their final decisions at the last minute. He is pushing them into a corner.”

Al-Rafati expects that the far-right parties will back down and accept Netanyahu’s proposals because they do not want another election with no guarantee of the same results.