Less than a week into his new government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had his first confrontation with one of his coalition partners when National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir insisted on going to the Temple Mount, the most provocative act possible for a senior Israeli government official. 

Netanyahu tried to delay the visit in the interest of calming the diplomatic waters ahead of his planned diplomatic trip to the United Arab Emirates. Ben Gvir ignored his concerns and went anyway; the UAE followed up by convening the UN Security Council to denounce Israel.

Haaretz columnist and Netanyahu biographer Anshel Pfeffer joins the podcast to discuss the dynamics between a weak Netanyahu and his assertive coalition partners and what we can expect from them in the future. Listen to his full conversation with host Allison Kaplan Sommer. 

Note: this episode was recorded before the announcement of Justice Minister Yariv Levin's plans to weaken the Israeli Supreme Court. For a discussion of the threats to Israel's legal system, listen to this previous episode with legal scholar Yaniv Roznai.

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