Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Saka. My guest today built his reputation as a hardline, hawkish member of Israel's Likud Party.

Danny Danon is a former Deputy Minister of Defence and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations,

who has long advocated Israeli annexation of chunks of the West Bank,

territory seized by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967, home to two and a half million

Palestinians, and regarded as occupied territory under international law. Now, it says much about

the current state of Israeli politics that Danon is now one of the more temperate voices in a governing coalition led by Binjamin Netanyahu, which includes extreme nationalist politicians who stand accused of inciting race hate and sympathizing with Jewish terrorism.

In recent weeks, that coalition has been rocked by

mass protests at proposals for a fundamental reform of Israel's judicial system. Put simply, that plan

would massively boost the power of the governing majority in Parliament to bend Israel's highest court to its will.

Now, Israeli critics, including some senior figures in his own party, fear that Mr. Netanyahu

will undermine any semblance of checks and balances necessary to safeguard minority rights

and democratic values. The mass protests forced Mr. Netanyahu to pause the

reform, but will he change it? And in the meantime, Israel has seen the violent conflict with the

Palestinians escalate. The death toll is rising on both sides, and tensions are particularly high

in Jerusalem, as both Muslims and Jews mark religious holidays.

Amid political turmoil at home, a deteriorating security situation and stinging criticism from Israel's

allies overseas is the great survivor Netanyahu now jeopardizing Israel's future.

Well, Danny Danon joins me now on the line from Jerusalem.

Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you for having me, Stephen. Would you agree that right now Israel

appears to be in a very perilous position? You have deep political turmoil at home and a security

crisis at the very same time. The former makes it

more difficult to deal with the latter, doesn't it? Well, it's never boring here in Israel.

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