Referenews

Israel’s president, who holds a ceremonial role and typically refrains from speaking about specific policies, condemned antigay views after Mr. Netanyahu’s partners planned to include legislation in a coalition deal that would permit religious-based discrimination against LGBT people. In a rare move, the army’s chief of staff called Mr. Netanyahu Monday to caution him against legislation that would place some military branches under the direct control of one of his ultranationalist partners.

The condemnation from top officials underscores growing concerns among certain sectors of Israeli society about the incoming government, which political analysts say will be Israel’s most right-wing and religious government in its history. 

“We’ve never seen a wave of legislation like this,” said Amir Fuchs, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute, a think tank. He said the proposed changes are “a critical blow to democracy.”

An official from Mr. Netanyahu’s party said the new government will be sworn in on Thursday, although Mr. Netanyahu is still negotiating final coalition agreements with several partners. His right-wing Likud party is expected to join two ultra-Orthodox and three ultranationalist factions. 

During his previous rounds in office, Mr. Netanyahu largely preserved Israel’s constitutional order. In speeches since the election, he has promised to govern for all the citizens of Israel and dismissed as fearmongering the warnings about Israeli democracy faltering. 

Mr. Netanyahu has said he will set the agenda, not his allies. He has also said he won’t allow religious parties to create a state based on halacha, or Jewish law. 

“The Likud will guarantee that there will be no harm to LGBT people or to the rights of any citizen in Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu tweeted Thursday. 

Mr. Netanyahu is facing corruption charges, which he denies, that could see him serve years in prison if convicted. Most of his erstwhile partners on the center and left now oppose joining him due to his trial. Mr. Netanyahu is overly dependent on his far-right partners and has no hope of obtaining power without them, leaving him in a weak bargaining position, say political analysts. 

Aviv Kochavi, the Israeli army chief of staff, took an unusual step Monday evening when he called Mr. Netanyahu to caution him against a plan to give Religious Zionism leader

Bezalel Smotrich,

who supports annexing the occupied West Bank, control of Israeli military bodies responsible for Israeli settlement construction in the disputed area. Mr. Kochavi warned Mr. Netanyahu that the shake-up was happening too quickly and that the army needed to be more involved in sensitive security decisions. 

“In the conversation it was agreed that decisions related to the IDF will be made after the IDF presents the outcomes and implications arising from these decisions,” the Israeli military said after news of the call leaked to local news media. 

The call was unusual because the Israeli army prides itself as a consensus institution and has traditionally shied away from public clashes with Israel’s elected leaders.

Among other proposed changes being codified in coalition agreements is one that would allow the country’s parliament, or Knesset, to override Supreme Court rulings with a simple majority. That would give lawmakers, rather than the court, final say on what laws can be passed.

Israel Attorney General Gali Bharav-Miara said at a conference in mid-December that such legislation threatens the country’s democracy. “Majority rule, without constitutional arrangements that check the power of the majority, is not democracy in the fundamental sense,” she said. “The consequences will be felt most deeply by minorities and the marginalized.”

The incoming coalition has also agreed to expand the powers of incoming National Security Minister

Itamar Ben-Gvir,

an ultranationalist who has been convicted of terrorism and incitement to racism and advocates expelling Israelis he deems disloyal.

Mr. Ben-Gvir, who leads the far-right Jewish Power party, has advanced legislation that will allow him to directly set police priorities and oversee investigations, leading Israeli Police Chief Kobi Shabtai to express concern that the police could be politicized.

At a conference in mid-December, Mr. Shabtai said the change “will harm the complex, daily relations between police and civilians in millions of points of contact.” He also raised concerns that Mr. Ben-Gvir could use the police to quash political dissenters he disagreed with. “Does this law allow the minister to tell the police which protests to disperse and which not to disperse?” he said. 

With the deadline to form a government fast approaching, Mr. Ben-Gvir agreed to table some aspects of the law that were receiving significant pushback until after the new government is sworn in.

The second-largest alliance in Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition, the Religious Zionism alliance, said it would pass legislation that would enable businesses to refuse customers who violated their religious beliefs, including members of the LGBT community. As examples, Religious Zionism lawmakers said hotel owners could refuse to host LGBT groups.

The party said Mr. Netanyahu signed off on the move as part of their coalition agreement. Mr. Netanyahu also agreed to hand Avi Maoz, a religious nationalist who runs the anti-LGBT Noam party, control over extracurricular school activities in order to bring him into the coalition.

Israeli President

Isaac Herzog

said he was “very worried and disturbed” by the “racist statements heard in recent days against the LGBT community.”

“I condemn any statement that is a basis for exclusion or any phenomenon that allows discrimination,” Mr. Herzog said. 

Write to Shayndi Raice at Shayndi.Raice@wsj.com