I n Tel Aviv, Israelis whizz about on e-scooters, fashionable restaurants sell organic wine and a whiff of marijuana is never more than a block away. Its architects were refugees from the Nazis and its Bauhaus style reflects their socialist idealism. Israel was governed by Labour prime ministers for more than two decades after its establishment in 1948 and the collectivist kibbutz philosophy dominated political life.
But its politics shifted right over the course of subsequent waves of immigration, most notably from the former Soviet Union, and it has been more than two decades since it had a left-leaning government. Arguably, Binyamin Netanyahu ’s current coalition, which includes extremist figures like Itamar Ben-Gvir, who lives in a West Bank settlement, is the most nationalist in Israeli.
