After the November election in Israel, Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is back in office with his four hard right-wing party alliances: Likud, Religious Zionist parties, the Haredi Shas, and United Torah Judaism factions. The Central Elections Committee (CEC) published the result of the 25th Knesset that the Pro-Netanyahu bloc has 64 seats, the former coalition has 51 seats and Hadash-Ta’al has 5 seats. After the November election, the faction formed by Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit, and Noam party formally ended their unification. As a joint faction, they won 14 seats from the November election: Religious Zionism holds 7 seats, Otzma Yehudit holds 6 seats, and Noam party holds one seat in the Knesset.

Focus on Security in West Bank

Likud and Otzma Yehudit have agreed Itamar Ben Gvir will serve in the newly created position of National Security Minister. This position is an expanded public security minister role that includes the power to supervise the national police and Border Police in the West Bank, which currently falls under the Defense Ministry with some advice from the Public Security Ministry.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s designated Prime Minister, has also reached an agreement with Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism that Religious Zionism will have the authority over the Civil Administration which supervises construction, and infrastructure in the West Bank. This deal will grant authority of control over security in the West Bank to a far-right party and has raised people’s awareness of the potentially more aggressive West Bank conflict in the near future. Bezalel Smotrich had demanded the position of Ministry of Defense but was strongly opposed and criticized by the U.S., so Smotrich compromised and received the position of Minister of Finance eventually and the position of Ministry of Defense remains with Likud party.

The Civil Administration oversees the coordination of Israel’s activity in the West Bank, which is important for Palestinians. Religious Zionism will have the power in approving settlement construction in Area C and Palestinian construction plans in the West Bank. Moreover, the Civil Administration is responsible for making decisions involving outposts, construction, and work permits for Palestinians that are deeply related to Palestinians’ lives in the West Bank.

In addition, Otzma Yehudit will also be handed the heritage portfolio in the role of deputy minister in the Ministry of Economy, rotating chairmanship of the Special Committee for the Israeli Citizens’ Fund (which supervises state revenue from gas drilling), the chair of the Knesset’s Public Security Committee and Galilee and National Fortitude Ministry.

The Abraham Accords and Two-State Solution

Under U.S. President Donald Trump’s mediation, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco signed the Abraham Accords and recognized Israel on the condition that Israel would not annex more areas in the West Bank. The Abraham Accords received support from Netanyahu but not Palestine. The accords not only backed Israel’s annexation of 30 percent of the West Bank where Israel’s settlements had been built but also supported Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The two-state solution is the feasible way to path peace between Israel and Palestine and is supported by Palestine, the U.S. and the Arab countries, however, some of the members in the coalition government oppose the two-state solution, for example, Itamar Ben-Gavir and Bezalel Smotrich. As mentioned before, the post of Minister of Security will be handed by Itamar Ben-Gavir and Ministry of Finance will be served by Bezalel Smotrich. After several negotiations within the new coalition government, control over the West Bank mainly falls to far-right parties, which implies there probably is a next move to annex more areas in the West Bank.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only end if Israel agrees to recognize Palestine, and stop annexing more areas of the West Bank. However, the new far-right coalition government seems more likely to move away from the two-state solution and taking the opposite approach.