Israel’s new government is the most right-wing ever

FOR THE sixth time in his long career, , aged 73, was sworn in as Israel’s prime minister on December 29th. But the cabinet that joined him on the front bench of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, is like no other Israeli government that has preceded it.Among the new ministers congratulating each other on the government’s inauguration was a former member of an organisation denounced for advocating terrorism who becomes Israel’s new national-security minister; a finance minister who believes that following God’s commandments is the key to economic policy; and a justice minister who plans to eviscerate the power of Israel’s Supreme Court, long regarded as a bastion of liberal-minded independence.