Israel’s Likud party signs coalition deal with anti-LGBTQ radical

Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu (AP)

Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a coalition deal with a small ultra-nationalist faction leader known for homophobic rhetoric and disparaging remarks about non-Orthodox Jews.

In a sign of the prospective government’s hardline composition, Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party announced that the agreement names Noam faction leader Avi Maoz as a deputy minister whose portfolio includes an office bolstering Jewish identity among Israelis.