The Rise of the Right Wing in Israel

What It Covers

The episode traces Israel's right-wing political evolution from Meir Kahane's extremist activism in the 1970s through Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition with far-right parties, examining how fringe Kahanist ideology entered mainstream Israeli politics and government.

Key Questions Answered

• •Political transformation timeline: Israel shifted from Labour Party dominance (1948-1977) to Menachem Begin's Likud victory in 1977, which legitimized revisionist Zionism claiming Israeli sovereignty over all land between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, fundamentally reshaping settlement policy.
• •Kahane's tactical blueprint: Meir Kahane built political support by targeting disenfranchised Mizrahi Jews and recent immigrants, using their grievances about exclusion to recruit followers for his extremist platform—a strategy later replicated by both Netanyahu and Itamar Ben Gvir.
• •Netanyahu's survival strategy: Facing corruption charges and needing coalition partners, Netanyahu moved rightward in 2022, forming government with Ben Gvir's Jewish Power party (14 seats), creating a new national security minister position controlling police on both sides of the Green Line.
• •Post-Oslo generation effect: The Oslo Accords' failure and hermetic separation of Israeli and Palestinian populations meant most interactions occurred only between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers or settlers, normalizing occupation violence and making extremist messaging more acceptable to younger Israelis.