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Opinion | Israel’s New Kingmaker Is a Dangerous Extremist and He’s Here to Stay


Although Mr. Ben-Gvir is perhaps the most vocal in the line of succession, he is not the only one: The next government led by Netanyahu will be the most right-wing and most Orthodox in history. country. It will include figures like Mr Smotrich, the religious Zionist leader and a self-described “proud gay”, as well as anti-LGBTQ members of the Haredi party. The glue that will hold this alliance together is a form of theocratic Jewish supremacy that will essentially turn largely into increased repression against Palestinians and non-Palestinian minorities. another Jew.

Mr. Netanyahu has been a keeper of more ambitious proposals from his right-wing coalition partners, but he now respects them more than ever, for bringing him back to power and potentially. helped him evade corruption charges, in part through the paralyze the courts.

However, even if he defeats his corruption trial, he will not lead Israel’s right forever. Mr. Netanyahu is 73 years old this year. His 17-year era of leadership has seen Likud virtually eliminate the secular and moderate rightists, which have turned into a populist party against its charismatic leader. But this also means that the group’s future is uncertain without him. When Mr. Netanyahu inevitably has to leave public life, he will leave a void on the right that Mr. Ben-Gvir is ready to fill.

Part of what makes Mr. Ben-Gvir successful is that while he has not hidden religious elements from his agenda, he has campaigned to represent a wide range of Israeli Jewish society. His party included figures from across Israel’s demographics who often joined separate parties: Although many in the Jewish Power were hardliners, settlers Orthodox on the West Coast, others are secular hawks. There are Sephardic traditionalists, who identify Mr. Ben-Gvir as the son of Iraqi-Kurdish immigrants, and young Ashkenazi Haredim, who is disillusioned with conventional Orthodox parties.

In his election night speech, Mr Ben-Gvir revealed that his party’s success was due to its ability to “represent all people – secular and religious, ultra-Orthodox and traditional, Sephardim and Ashkenazim.” His rhetoric combines outspoken ethnic nationalism, worship of the land of Israel, and reverence for the armed forces. In the past, leaders of the far right despised the Israeli mainstream and sought to alienate it; On the contrary, Mr. Ben-Gvir wants to represent it.

Joshua Leifer is a contributing editor at Jewish Currents and a member of the Dissident editorial board.

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