The Guardian View on Israel’s Threat within: Rightwing Extremism in Government

THE GUARDIAN: – EDITORIAL Benjamin Netanyahu is playing with fire by giving racist politicians control over the police and the occupied territories

The Likud chairman, Benjamin Netanyahu (left), and the Religious Zionist party leader, Bezalel Smotrich, stand behind the Israeli PM, Yair Lapid, in the Knesset. Photograph: Tsafrir Abayov/AP
The crisis in the Holy Land is once again at “boiling point”, with blood being spilled on both sides. Tor Wennesland, the UN’s peace envoy, did not mince his words to the security council this week. The rising death toll in the West Bank, the worst since 2006, is roiling the waters. Since January, about 140 Palestinians have been killed in this territory, nearly all by Israeli forces. Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis have left 30 dead.

Days earlier, Mr Wennesland had been “horrified” by the fatal shooting of an unarmed Palestinian man during a scuffle with an Israeli border police officer. The macabre video of the killing revealed he was right to be alarmed. Yet rather than upbraiding the officer for a public execution, the incoming national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, from the far-right Jewish Power party, hailed him as a hero. » | Editorial | Wednesday, December 7, 2022