Israel's Netanyahu Back with Extreme-right Government

Benjamin Netanyahu, 73, already served as prime minister longer than anyone in Israeli history. Menahem KAHANA / AFP/File
Benjamin Netanyahu, 73, already served as prime minister longer than anyone in Israeli history. Menahem KAHANA / AFP/File
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Israel's Netanyahu Back with Extreme-right Government

Benjamin Netanyahu, 73, already served as prime minister longer than anyone in Israeli history. Menahem KAHANA / AFP/File
Benjamin Netanyahu, 73, already served as prime minister longer than anyone in Israeli history. Menahem KAHANA / AFP/File

After a stint in opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu will return to power in Israel on Thursday, leading what analysts describe as the most right-wing government in the country's history.

Senior security and law enforcement officials have already voiced concern over its direction, as have Palestinians.

"It becomes for Netanyahu's partners a dream government," Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute think-tank, told AFP.

"And one side's dream is the other side's nightmare," he said, adding: "This government is expected to take the country in a completely new trajectory."

Netanyahu, 73, who is fighting corruption allegations in court, already served as prime minister longer than anyone in Israeli history, including a record 12-year tenure from 2009 to 2021 and a three-year period in the late 90s.

He was ousted from power in the spring of 2021 by a motley coalition of leftists, centrists and Arab parties headed by Naftali Bennett and former TV news anchor Yair Lapid.

It didn't take him long to come back.

Netanyahu will present his new government to the Israeli parliament for a ratification vote at 11:00 am (0900 GMT).

Following the election on November 1, Netanyahu entered into negotiations with ultra-Orthodox and extreme-right parties, among them Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism formation and Itamar Ben Gvir's Jewish Power party.

Both have a history of inflammatory remarks about the Palestinians.

They will now take charge respectively of Israeli settlement policy in the West Bank, and of the Israeli police, which also operate in the territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

- 'Thirst for power' -
Even before the government was sworn in, the majority parties passed laws that would allow Aryeh Deri, a key ally from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, to serve as a minister despite a previous guilty plea to tax offences.

They also voted to expand powers of the national security minister, a portfolio set to be handed to Ben Gvir who will have authority over the police.

The assignment comes despite Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara's warning against the "politicization of law enforcement".

On Monday, in a phone call to Netanyahu, armed forces chief Aviv Kochavi expressed his concerns regarding the creation of a second ministerial post in the defense ministry for Smotrich, who will oversee management of civilian affairs in the West Bank.

Israel's ally the United States has also spoken out.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Washington would oppose settlement expansion as well as any bid to annex the West Bank.

But in a statement of policy priorities released Wednesday, Netanyahu's Likud party said the government will pursue settlement expansion.

About 475,000 Jewish settlers -- among them Smotrich and Ben Gvir -- live there now in settlements considered illegal under international law.

Analysts said Netanyahu offered the extreme-right vast concessions in the hope he might obtain judicial immunity or cancellation of his corruption trial. He is charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, allegations he denies.

Denis Charbit, professor of political science at Israel's Open University, told AFP the government "is the addition of Netanyahu's political weakness, linked to his age and his trial, and the fact that you have a new political family of the revolutionary right that we had never seen with this strength in Israel".

Smotrich and Ben Gvir "have a very strong thirst for power" and their priority remains the expansion of West Bank settlements, Charbit said.

- 'Explosion' -
Ben Gvir has repeatedly visited Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third-holiest site in Islam. It is also Judaism's holiest, known as the Temple Mount.

Under a historical status quo, non-Muslims can visit the sanctuary but may not pray there. Palestinians would see a visit by a serving Israeli minister as a provocation.

"If Ben Gvir, as minister, goes to Al-Aqsa it will be a big red line and it will lead to an explosion," Basem Naim, a senior official with the Hamas movement which rules the Gaza Strip, told AFP.

Israel and Hamas fought a war in May 202l. This year, other Gaza militants and Israel exchanged rocket and missile fire for three days in August.

In the West Bank, violence has surged this year and many are afraid of more unrest.

"I think that if the government acts in an irresponsible way, it could cause a security escalation," outgoing Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Tuesday, expressing fear over the "extremist direction" of the incoming administration.



Taiwan Says Somalia Bans Entry to Its Citizens amid Somaliland Dispute

A soldier lowers the Taiwan national flag during the daily flag ceremony at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
A soldier lowers the Taiwan national flag during the daily flag ceremony at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
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Taiwan Says Somalia Bans Entry to Its Citizens amid Somaliland Dispute

A soldier lowers the Taiwan national flag during the daily flag ceremony at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
A soldier lowers the Taiwan national flag during the daily flag ceremony at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

Somalia has banned entry to Taiwan passport holders citing compliance with a United Nations resolution, the island's foreign ministry said, blaming Chinese pressure on Mogadishu at a time Taiwan is boosting ties with Somaliland.

Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 but has not gained widespread international recognition for its independence. The region has been mostly peaceful while Somalia has endured three decades of civil war.

Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory and likewise diplomatically isolated, and Somaliland set up representative offices in each other's capitals in 2020, angering Mogadishu and Beijing.

In a statement late on Tuesday, Taiwan's foreign ministry said the Somalia Civil Aviation Authority had last week issued a notice that as of Wednesday Taiwanese passports will not be accepted for entry to Somalia.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lodged a solemn protest against the Somali government's move, instigated by China, to restrict the freedom and security of travel of our nationals, and demands the Somali government immediately revoke the announcement," it said.

Somalia's outgoing Foreign Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi told Reuters the measure had been taken because they recognize one China policy and consider Taiwan a part of China.

"We banned from Somalia all illegal work of Taiwan and those with Taiwanese passports," he said.

"It (Taiwan) violated the independence and unity of Somalia by opening illegal offices in a town which is part of Somalia, without permission from Somalia." He was referring to Hargeisa, Somaliland's capital.

Somaliland officials could not be reached for comment.

A spokesman for China's foreign ministry said the decision was a legitimate measure taken by Somalia to safeguard its rights and interests.

"It also shows that Somalia firmly abides by the one China principle ... we firmly oppose the establishment of institutions or any form of official exchange between the Taiwan authorities and Somaliland," ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a news conference on Wednesday.

Notice of the entry ban, sent to airlines, was given so that Somalia complies with a United Nations Resolution passed in 1971 by which the Beijing government took Taipei's place at the global body under the "one China" principle, according to Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Taiwan, along with the US, says the UN resolution makes no mention of Taiwan's status and that China has deliberately misinterpreted it. China says the resolution gives international legal standing to its claims of sovereignty over the democratically governed island.