New Mideast Risk Looms in Israel’s Right Turn

Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to make a political comeback after just 16 months in opposition, at the head of one of the most right-wing governments in Israeli history — a dramatic reversal with implications for relations in the Middle East and the wider world.

Barring a major change in final results from yesterday’s election, the country’s longest-serving premier is set to return in a coalition that’s likely to include controversial figures like Itamar Ben-Gvir, an influential gun-toting Jewish ultra-nationalist who once led the youth wing of a party that Israel outlawed and the US declared a terrorist organization.