A RACE OR A RELIGION?:

In the next few days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may announce his new coalition government. It is expected to be the most extreme government in Israeli history, after the electorate decided to turn to the far-right and elect Kahane 2.0 in the form of Itamar Ben-Gvir and place the Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich in control of the occupied West Bank, which he calls Biblical Judea and Samaria. Meanwhile, far-right Avi Maoz is stuck in the pre-medieval age and trying to reform Judaism to his way of thinking, as legislators change the law to allow corrupt politicians like Aryeh Deri to take ministerial positions.

What do the Palestinians want more than this? Their political opponent is back with a government that looks like a Jewish Daesh in its medievalism. It is as far from modernity as one can imagine. What's more, Netanyahu is doing this in full view of the world. How can he claim that Israel promotes values shared with the West when his ministers and coalition partners are so backward-looking?

This places his allies in an awkward situation from which they cannot escape because the far-right ideology and religious fanaticism that now props up the Israeli leader is incompatible with the West.

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