Jerusalem: Benjamin Netanyahu has returned to power for an unprecedented sixth term as Israel’s prime minister, taking the helm of the most right-wing and religiously conservative government in the country’s 74-year history.
The swearing-in ceremony on Thursday (Friday AEDT) capped a remarkable comeback for Netanyahu, who was ousted last year after 12 consecutive years in power. But he faces numerous challenges, leading an alliance of religious and far-right parties that could cause domestic and regional turmoil and alienate his country’s closest allies.
His new government has pledged to prioritise settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, extend massive subsidies to his ultra-Orthodox allies and push for sweeping reform of the judicial system that critics say could endanger the country’s democratic institutions. The plans have sparked an uproar in Israeli society, prompting criticism from the military, LGBTQ rights groups, the business community and others, and raised concerns abroad.
In a stormy parliamentary session before his swearing in, the combative Netanyahu took aim at his critics, accusing the opposition of trying to scare the public.
“I hear the constant cries of the opposition about the end of the country and democracy,” Netanyahu said from the podium. “Opposition members: to lose in elections is not the end of democracy, this is the essence of democracy.”
Read the article by Isabel Debre and Josef Federman in The Sydney Morning Herald and Financial Review.