by Keren Setton
JERUSALEM, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu announced late Wednesday that he has successfully formed a new coalition government.
Netanyahu made the announcement to Israel's President Isaac Herzog over the phone, just minutes before the deadline expired for forming a government. It came a few weeks after Israel held the 5th parliamentary election in less than four years.
If sworn in, Netanyahu's new coalition, which will be the most rightist government ever in Israel, will face numerous challenges in the international arena, analysts said.
Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners could put him on a collision course with many players in the international community, including the United States, they said.
One of Netanyahu's partners is the ultra-right Jewish Power party, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir. The party seeks to loosen the rules of engagement for Israeli soldiers and grant them immunity for shooting Palestinians.
Ben-Gvir has also said he will promote legislation that will allow the death penalty for Palestinian militants convicted in Israeli courts.
"Netanyahu is a pragmatic person, but many members of his coalition are very radical, very ideological and he is going to have to hold them back," said Emmanuel Navon, an expert on international relations at the Tel Aviv University.
Some other partners in his coalition are in favor of annexation of Palestinian territories in the West Bank.
Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and has controlled or besieged them ever since, while the Palestinians seek to establish an independent state on these territories with East Jerusalem as the capital.
Many Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal according to international law, have been built on these territories.
"Netanyahu himself knows the political cost (of annexation)," said Professor Gerald Steinberg from the Political Science Department at the Bar Ilan University.
"If there is a more aggressive annexationist policy of the Israeli government, that will cause real friction with the United States. I don't see Netanyahu going in that direction," he said.
But not only the handling of the conflict with the Palestinians could put the new government at odds with Washington. Changes in the status quo between religion and state in Israel will also offend the large Jewish community in the United States.
The U.S. also rejects the passing of legislations that will marginalize the Israeli-Arab minority and laws that will weaken the judicial system in Israel.
Although the U.S. administration led by President Joe Biden has said it will judge the incoming Israeli government based on its actions, there are already concerns that a collision is imminent.
"It's going to be much harder for Israel ... in this government to activate the pro-Israel lobbies in the United States," Navon told Xinhua.
The new coalition is expected to be sworn-in in the coming weeks. The Jewish state's strategy for dealing with Iran, which it sees as its biggest threat, is another challenge for Netanyahu.
With nuclear negotiations between Iran and world powers stalling, Israel has been carefully monitoring the situation. During the previous Democratic administration led by President Barack Obama, Netanyahu butted heads with him over the Iranian issue.
Netanyahu "is probably going to try to figure out with U.S. President Biden how to manage the Iranian threat in the coming years," said Navon.
Israel, under Netanyahu, will likely continue to be tough with Iran, analysts said.
Israel is already believed to have launched hundreds of airstrikes against Iranian targets in the Middle East in an attempt to hamper Iranian support for militant organizations like Hamas in Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"Those attacks will not only continue, but also likely to accelerate, and to become even more visible because of Iran's effort to try to expand its capability," said Steinberg. ■
