The ideological differences within Israel’s new unity government will likely lead to its early demise — leaving open the potential of a more strongly right-wing Israeli government to take its place that would risk stoking more unrest in the Palestinian territories and further straining Israel’s relations abroad. On June 2, Israeli opposition parties announced the formation of the country’s second unity government in two years. The new so-called “change government” brings together settlers, nationalists, Islamists, leftists and centrists into an unwieldy coalition led by Naftali Bennett from the right-wing pro-settler Yamina party. The unity government puts an end to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year stint as prime minister, the longest in Israeli history. It also removes a major obstacle to a functioning government: Netanyahu himself, who broke with tradition and split the country’s dominant right-wing parties when he refused to resign following his indictment for corruption in November 2019. But while Netanyahu appears likely to recede from the political spotlight, the unity government’s ideological diversity means that it will struggle with policy implementation. Its right-leaning prime minister is likely to also continue to pursue policies like settlement expansion, which will anger the coalition’s Islamist and left-wing members.
