Blinken affirms that Washington will judge the new Israeli Executive by its actions, not by the personalities that integrate it
Dec. 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, has congratulated on Thursday the Prime Minister Designate of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, for having managed to form a coalition government and has urged the Israeli side to work on joint “values”.
Blinken has stressed that he hopes that Israel will promote “a broader approach” with the aim of providing “equitable measures of security, opportunity, prosperity and dignity” for both Israelis and Palestinians “equally”.
In this way, he has explained that neither the US policy nor the approach towards Israel has changed. “We will engage and judge our partners in Israel based on the policies they pursue, not the personalities that happen to be in it,” he explained, adding that the relationship between the two is “solid as a rock.”
Netanyahu’s Likud-led coalition includes the far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionism, Noam, Shas and United Torah Judaism. In total, these formations control 64 of the 120 seats in the Knesset.
The new Executive represents an important change with respect to the outgoing government, made up of a broad coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid – who rotated in the post of prime minister – which largely revolved around their opposition to Netanyahu. This Executive integrated for the first time in its midst an Arab party, the Joint Arab List.
In fact, Lapid – who now holds the posts of prime minister and foreign minister – has said after Netanyahu’s announcement that it is the “most extreme government in the country’s history”, while the outgoing economy minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has lamented the concessions to far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, accusing Netanyahu of “joining the government of darkness.”
The Likud leader is scheduled to be sworn in to the future coalition government on January 2. Netanyahu has to officially present the agreement to the Israeli Parliament 24 hours before being sworn in, as reported by the newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’.
