Fascism Takes Another Step Forward

Israel embracing fascism, despite having plenty of experience with what this means, is at least as disturbing as it is in the United States.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s opposition leader, was set on Thursday to seal victory in Israel’s general election, putting him on track to return as prime minister at the helm of one of the most right-wing governments in Israeli history.

Vote counting was expected to finish on Thursday afternoon, and Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc is almost guaranteed to score a clear victory, according to near final results published by the electoral authority. That would ensure that Israel, after five elections in less than four years, will have a cohesive government with a steady majority for the first time since 2019.

The far right’s strong showing was linked to fears among right-wing Jews about perceived threats to Israel’s Jewish identity and to their personal safety. A wave of interethnic riots in May 2021 unsettled their sense of security, a feeling that was compounded months later by the inclusion — for the first time in Israeli history — of an Arab party in the coalition government.

Those dual concerns drove some right-wing Israelis to more extreme parties in the most recent election

….

These tensions underscore the complexity of Mr. Netanyahu’s return: As Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, he is a known quantity who has defined contemporary Israeli society perhaps more than any other politician. But his decision to ally with the far right, untrammeled by any centrist or leftist forces, takes Israel into the unknown.

Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right allies want to weaken and overhaul Israel’s justice system, giving politicians more control of judicial appointments and loosening the Supreme Court’s oversight of parliamentary process. Those allies could make such policies a condition of their joining his coalition.

They also want to end Palestinian autonomy in parts of the occupied West Bank and have a history of antagonizing the Palestinian minority within Israel itself, a track record that has raised fears that the new government could exacerbate Jewish-Arab tensions in Israel and curb any remaining hope of an end to the occupation.

What could go wrong?

But hey, ethnonationalist states, what a great idea!