Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday night announced the successful formation of Israel’s new, strongly Zionist, coalition.

The government, Israel’s 37th in its 75 years of modern existence, and Netanyahu’s sixth (he is already the nation’s longest-serving prime minister) must be sworn in no later than January 2. The plan is for it to happen by December 27 or 28.

“Bibi” notified State President Isaac Herzog of his achievement less than 20 minutes before the time allotted to him expired. While he still needs to sign the final agreements with the leaders of the other parties in his Likud Party-led union, this is expected to happen without any major issues.

Israel’s visibly frazzled left-wing press Thursday reported that the event heralded Israel’s “most hardline [government] ever”, mimicking virtually verbatim the dismayed words of outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who groaned a few minutes after Netanyahu spoke to the president that the new government will be “the most extreme in Israel’s history”.

Netanyahu’s successful welding together of Zionist and orthodox parties into a solid Right-Wing coalition was completed two days after Washington wired a warning, via Politico among other media outlets, that it would hold the Israeli leader personally answerable for any decisions or actions his new government might take that the US doesn’t like.

President Joe Biden and his secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, have not hidden their alarm over the political platforms of the most significant coalition partners – the Jewish Strength Party of Itamar Ben-Gvir, who will come in as Minister of National Security, and the Religious Zionist Party of Bezalel Smotrich, slated to receive ministerial authority over Judea and Samaria.

The two men’s combined goals are to strengthen Israel’s character as the Jewish state by taking steps, among others, to increase security against terrorism, as well as criminal violence, open the Temple Mount to Jewish worship and increase and consolidate the presence of Jewish residents in the towns and cities of Israel’s biblical heartland – Samaria and Judea.

All these aims fly in the face of America’s political intent which, along with that of the rest of the world, is to see the Jews removed from the “West Bank” and the Israel-hating Arab populace enabled to establish in their place a new state called Palestine: the “Two State Solution”.

Despite all the discomfort, unease and anger expressed by the progressive political world, those opposing the direction that will be pursued by Israel’s new government have been stymied, for the present.

They cannot argue against the fact that this is the democratically elected direction the nation of Israel has voted to take.