Netanyahu engineers a dangerous deal

If Benjamin Netanyahu wins the next Israeli election, on April 9, he is likely to become the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history. For that, he seems prepared to make a deal with the devil. Battered by scandals, and facing a strong challenge from former military chief of staff Benny Gantz, he apparently figures he can’t afford to lose any of the tiny Right-wing parties vying for spots in Israel’s parliament. So to make sure two clear the threshold for seats, he engineered their merger. The problem is one is everything Israel should condemn and the move has drawn rare public displeasure from some of his strongest supporters in the United States.

Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power, is led by followers of the extreme nationalist Meir Kahane, the Brooklyn-born rabbi whose Kach party was outlawed in Israel in the 1980s and placed on the American list of terrorist groups in 1997. Among other things, it advocates annexing the occupied territories, expelling ‘‘enemies’’ and seizing the Temple Mount, tantamount to declaring war on Islam.

The prime minister, however, has found an unswerving political ally in President Trump, underscored in a television interview on Sunday when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to fault the deal with Otzma Yehudit, saying, ‘‘We’ll allow the Israeli people to sort this out.’’