Less than 24 hours passed between Binyamin Netanyahu being sworn in for the sixth time as Israel’s prime minister and his office putting out a statement on his first decision. Responsibility for security around Jerusalem would remain with the Israeli army, and not the police, for a further 30 days.
It was a technical bureaucratic announcement but a reminder that he was back — in a period of increasing violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories and at the end of a year in which 166 Palestinians and 31 Israelis died in clashes and terrorism.
There was also a jarring detail. The decision was made with the new national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a former member of a proscribed Jewish terror organisation and now leader of the hard-right Jewish Power party.
In the election two months ago, he helped Netanyahu win back power and has been rewarded with control of the police and a new national guard. Not so long ago, such a decision would have been unthinkable for the normally prudent Netanyau.
Like every journalist who has reported from Israel over the past few decades, my career has been dominated by this man.
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We have followed him for 40 years, since he was made deputy ambassador in Washington and pioneered a style of diplomacy that put Israel’s case in public, via TV interviews for example.
But despite the fact that no Israeli politician — in fact few anywhere — has been so minutely analysed, no one is certain what kind of Israel Netanyahu actually wants.
In his recent autobiography, he wrote: “I’ve always been a staunch believer in liberal democracy and immersed myself in its classical texts.”
Nevertheless, the memoir is full of paeans to less than liberal world leaders such as Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi and Viktor Orban, to name but a few.
In his years in office, Netanyahu has spoken of annexing the Occupied Territories and attacking Iran’s nuclear installations — always finding reasons to hold off from such steps.
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He has railed against an independent legal system, then somehow stymied the widespread reforms his allies have proposed. The conclusion to be drawn is that Netanyahu is not so much liberal as risk-averse.
On Thursday afternoon, as he and the cabinet were sworn in at the Knesset, Netanyahu singled out the new speaker, Amir Ohana, a loyal lieutenant. After the inauguration, there was a celebration of his appointment in which Netanyahu sat beside Ohana’s husband and two children. The message was clear — Ohana is the first openly gay speaker and Netanyahu was using him to send a liberal image of himself, his cabinet and Israel.
Some of Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies covered their eyes or left during Ohana’s inaugural speech. For them, homosexuality is an abomination. But these are the partners now controlling housing, health and welfare policy. Another partner is the openly homophobic Noam party, whose leader, Avi Maoz, is a deputy minister in charge of educational programmes and “national-Jewish identity”.
And it’s not just the coalition partners. From within the ranks of Netanyahu’s Likud party he chose some of the most hardline members for key posts. Yariv Levin, a close adviser who advocates reducing the independence of the supreme court, is to be justice minister. Shlomo Karhi, who has proposed shutting down Israel’s public broadcaster, is the communications minister.
Netanyahu will continue to assert his liberalism but as he begins yet another term, his government seems intent on making Israel a much less liberal place.
