COALITION REACHED IN ISRAEL AT LAST

Netanyahu makes concessions to Jewish Home

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday completed the formation of a new coalition government, reaching a last-minute deal with Naftali Bennett’s nationalist Jewish Home party just before a midnight deadline.

The late-night deal saved Netanyahu from the unthinkable scenario of being forced from office. But it set the stage for the formation of a narrow coalition dominated by hard-line and religious parties that appears to be on a collision course with the U.S. and other allies.

With a slim majority of just 61 seats in the 120-seat parliament, Netanyahu could also struggle to press forward with a domestic agenda.

The Jerusalem Post reported that as part of the deal, Bennett will become minister of education and diaspora affairs, while Jewish Home MK Uri Ariel will become agriculture minister and controversial MK Ayelet Shaked will take over justice.

The latter appointment is sensitive because of proposals, backed by right-wingers, to dilute the powers of Supreme Court judges and because the new justice minister will have the power to appoint the next attorney general when the post becomes vacant in the next six months.

Earlier in the day, the prospect of the hardline Shaked taking the post prompted a wave of criticism. Nachman Shai, an MP for the centre-Left Zionist Union, said it would be “like giving a pyromaniac the Israel Fire and Rescue Authority.”

The Jewish Home party is linked to the West Bank settler movement. It opposes peace moves toward the Palestinians and has pushed for increased settlement construction on occupied lands — a policy that is opposed by the U.S. and European countries.