THE ONLY EXISTENTIAL THREAT IS INTERNAL:

The new government was born in legal sin. It took unprecedented speedy personal and retroactive legislation to make the necessary changes to allow its formation. The law named after Aryeh Deri, head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and now minister of both interior and health, clears the way to allow him to take office despite his conviction over tax offences and a suspended prison sentence. The law passed despite reservations of the attorney general, herself under personal assault by the right wing, which is eager to see her resign and is threatening to fire her. Deri is Netanyahu's most experienced ally in this coalition.

It took another speedy piece of legislation to allow Smotrich to simultaneously serve as finance minister and within the defence ministry to oversee the West Bank. To both positions, this Jewish supremacist brings the same ideology. As future finance minister, he said his economic strategy would be infused with religious beliefs, as the Hebrew Bible taught that obeying God brought prosperity.

The same strategy will be applied when dealing with Palestinians in the West Bank. During the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, Smotrich was arrested for allegedly trying to light a fire on a major Israeli highway to protest against the pullout. He was arrested and detained by the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence service, for three weeks. After two years in office, Deri will replace him as finance minister.

Confused? Appalled? It is getting worse. The new national security minister is Itamar Ben-Gvir, a dangerous far-right racist extremist who has faced dozens of charges of hate speech against Palestinians and been convicted of criminal offenses. The very title "national security minister" he demanded is custom made for him, and a new tailored law allows this agent of chaos far more authority over police officers than ever before in the history of the state.

According to the new coalition agreement, he is in fact the new chief of police, a force now subordinated to a politician. His new ministry will also control the border police force in the West Bank, which previously answered to the military. Good luck to both Jews and Palestinians. The new defence minister, Likud's Yoav Gallant, gets about one third of the previous portfolio, the rest is divided between Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.

Until few years ago, Ben-Gvir's ministry was simply the Ministry of Police. Then the name changed to Ministry of Public Security. Ben-Gvir demanded it be changed again, to become the national security ministry, and Netanyahu agreed. Many positions in the new government carry the prefix "Jewish" or "national". For instance, "Jewish identity", "Jewish legacy", "national missions", "Jewish heritage", etcetera. The message of Jewish supremacy is loud and clear, but so is the sense of insecurity that needs to be covered up by new terminology.

Thus, we get a far-right activist from the illegal Jewish settlement in Hebron, Orit Strook, as the first ever minister of national missions, whatever that means. Yitzhak Wasserlauf from Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power party becomes minister of national resilience. Avi Maoz, a blatant homophobe and racist from the Noam faction, is a deputy minister in the prime minister's office in charge of a new unit, the national Jewish identity department.

On top of it, Maoz - known for his offensive comments against members of the LGBTQ community, women and all progressive agenda - gets control over a unit in the education ministry that authorizes meetings between schools and NGOs. To appease Deri, Shas too will get another minister within the education ministry, with yet-unclear authority. For obvious reasons, the now dismembered education ministry was not much sought after and almost forced upon Yoav Kish, a first-time minister from Netanyahu's Likud party.

Likud MPs that felt so victorious in November with their 32 seats and total dedication to their leader turned in December into pictures of bitter resentment and disappointment. They began to refer to Netanyahu's coalition agreements as a "liquidation sale": liquidation of portfolios, power and even dignity, anything to attract his coalition partners. To keep dissatisfied Likudniks locked in with no emergency exit, Netanyahu was quick to pass a law that requires at least one-third of Likud to leave the party if a new faction is to be started. If Netanyahu himself is the hostage of his partners in the new government, Likud's unhappy MPs are now his captives, for better or for worse. It's a government based on balance of horror and on total lack of trust between partners.

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