The new Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu is anticipated to be different than its predecessors due to the likely inclusion of two ultra-nationalist and Jewish supremacist parties. That will present a challenge to the U.S., in terms of the new government’s more unsavory figures and the policies it is expected to implement.
Israel’s fifth parliamentary election in four years secured a dramatic political comeback for former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is set to form a government that will include the ultra-nationalist Religious Zionism. The coalition already threatens to undermine Israel’s partnerships with Gulf States and the U.S.
In June, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned of a “heightened threat environment” ahead of the midterm congressional elections. In the months since then, terrorism analysts have continued to express concern that the country could suffer a spasm of political violence tied to the elections on Nov. 8.
Italy’s new far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is in Brussels today for her first meetings with EU leaders. Such pro forma courtesy visits to Brussels are commonplace, but hers raises the question of how the bloc’s other leaders will manage the optics of working closely with Italy’s first far-right leader since World War II.
The highest-level negotiations between the two sides in Ethiopia’s civil war began last week in South Africa, amid low expectations they will end the two-year war. Nevertheless, the African Union-led talks have been extended, suggesting that, if both sides are not ready to stop fighting, neither are they ready to stop talking.