Top 5 Worst Things Far-Right Netanyahu Could Do As Israeli Prime Minister

What could Netanyahu do to Israeli “Democracy” and Palestinian Society?

By Juan Cole, Informed Comment

Now that far, far right Israeli politician Binyamin Netanyahu has been elected, what are the major negative consequences Israel and the world might see, according to the Israeli press and other sources? I’m drawing in part on a round-up by BBC Monitoring.

1. Netanyahu’s more fascist allies have demanded that all “terrorists” be executed. Netanyahu has resisted this demand in the past, but now that he depends on the fringe Right, they may force the measure through (Yuval Karni in the centrist, mass circulation Yediot Aharonot). Since Netanyahu’s new friends Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir view pretty much all Palestinians and even Israelis of Palestinian heritage as “terrorists,” that would be six million executions. Gee, there is a word for that kind of thing and it is on the tip of my tongue. No worries, it will come to me. Even if we defined terrorism as it was in the old 1990s pre-politicization Federal Code, as violence by non-state actors against civilians for political purposes, could Israel rival Saudi Arabia or Iran as execution capital of the world?

2. Netanyahu is trying to bring the Noam Party into his coalition. One of its major concerns is to attack LGBTQ people, and the party objects to Israel’s ban on conversion therapy, traumatic attempts forcibly to brainwash people of that persuasion into being straight. There is speculation that Netanyahu might lift that ban to get Noam’s allegiance, throwing LGBTQ people under the bus (Haaretz).