From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Hello and welcome to Free Expression with me, Jerry Baker from the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

I'm delighted you're joining us this week, and if you don't already subscribe, please do subscribe to Free Expression wherever you get your podcasts.

This week, as he stands on the threshold of

high office yet again, I'm talking with once and future Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He was first elected Prime Minister in 1996 and then after a period of opposition again in 2009.

He led his Likud Party last month to victory in the Knesset, securing the larger number of seats

in the Israeli parliament. That gave him the opportunity to form a coalition government with the

right-wing religious Zionism party, which in partnership with another radical right-wing party

gained significant seats in the Israeli parliamentary elections. Now, he's still in the process of forming

that government, but he does seem to be making progress with some key appointments already agreed, including top representatives of those religious parties

in important security positions. Now, that's a move that has some in the US and elsewhere around

the world concerned about the prospects for stability and peace in the West Bank and the wider

Middle East. Mr. Netanyahu is also out with an autobiography,

My Life, in which he reviews his many and varied careers as a soldier, businessman, diplomat,

and of course, a political and national leader, the longest serving Prime Minister in Israel's

history. And Benjamin Netanyahu joins me now. Prime Minister, thanks very much for joining us.

My pleasure. Now, I want to talk about your book, your autobiography and the long career and the various different guises in your career that you review in that book. But if I may, I want to start with what's going on right now in Israel. I know you're in the process of attempting to form a coalition government and there are some things that I suspect are still difficult to talk about in great detail. But one thing we do

know is that you have secured agreement with other parties, in particular the religious Zionist

party, and including giving some important security positions to the leader of that party.

As you know, that's caused some concern in other parts of the world. I'm wondering what exactly

this coalition, if you're able to

...