Why Israel is the envy of right-wing populists around the world

Israel's right-wing parties manage to keep the center and left hemmed in and in a state of perpetual defensiveness

The Israeli flag.

At first glance, estimates of the results of Tuesday's national election in Israel look like bad news for the right. The Likud Party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with its allied right-wing parties, failed to win an outright majority. Since the secular-nationalist party of Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) has vowed not to join in a governing coalition with the ultra-orthodox religious parties — and the center-left Kahol Lavan (Blue and White) claims it will not form a national unity government with Likud unless the prime minister steps down — Netanyahu's days in power look like they could be numbered, as could the right's more broadly.

That is true but deceptive. In reality, Israel is a country dominated by the right. The left, meanwhile, is small, factionalized, and hobbled by profound ideological and electoral vulnerabilities. Whether the right remains in power or goes into opposition for the first time in over a decade, it will continue to set the parameters of political debate going forward. That helps to explain why Israel has in recent years begun to align itself with various right-wing populist governments around the world — and why those governments express affection and support for the Jewish state. Israel has turned itself into a model for the global right.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.