Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to swiftly form a government have faltered as a prospective far-right coalition partner demands the cabinet role of defence minister.

A clear right-wing victory in the November 1 ballot – ending almost four years of political deadlock – raised expectations within Netanyahu’s conservative Likud of speedy alliances with like-minded religious-nationalist parties.

But fissures have emerged between Likud and the powerful Religious Zionism party, whose hard-line settler leaders oppose Palestinian statehood and want the occupied West Bank annexed – views in direct opposition to successive United States administrations.

Religious Zionism lawmakers are demanding party leader Betzalel Smotrich become defence minister to impact policy in the West Bank, more than half of which is under full Israeli military control and which the Palestinians want for a future state.

Likud wants to keep the key post.

“There was still misunderstandings and disagreements on the matter of Smotrich,” Likud lawmaker Miki Zohar told Kan radio.

He said defence was “the most important portfolio” for Likud.

“I hope this will be worked out soon,” Zohar said.

One Religious Zionism lawmaker, Orit Strock, said her party would accept the finance portfolio but was unwilling to accept anything that would not allow it to wield “true influence” on settlement development in the West Bank.

“He (Netanyahu) is not treating us as partners but as excess baggage,” Strock told Kan.

Even the finance role would present problems for Netanyahu, who said before the election Likud would keep the big three portfolios – defence, finance and foreign affairs.

Most countries view the settlements as illegal, a view Israel disputes.

Palestinians say their expansion denies them a viable state.

Whichever portfolio Religious Zionism lands, the incoming government looks to be the most right-wing in Israel’s history, forcing Netanyahu into a diplomatic balancing act between his coalition and Western allies.

-Reuters