What Israelis are Fighting Over

  

The civil strife in this country is between those who want a secular, liberal, and Jewish state and those who desire a socially, politically and religiously parochial garrison state.

All the other issues relating to the judiciary – the jurisdiction and independence of the office of the Attorney General, for instance – could have been worked out long ago had Israel adopted a constitution. However, the man who has been prime minister for most of the past 20 years declined to champion an orderly consensus-based constitutional process. 

More narrowly, if the issue today was how to select Supreme Court justices, that could be worked out by compromise in 48 hours. 

The mantra “Judicial reform” is a Trojan Horse for regime change that's been germinating for 20 years. Ideologues like Yariv Levin, backed by the American Jewish-funded Kohelet Policy Forum, had wanted to carry out this revolution using anesthesia. It was to be a gradual process. It was not supposed to hurt. 

But then, an opportunity presented itself that the once-patient ideologues could not resist.

It came in tandem with Binyamin Netanyahu's epiphany that the police and courts were out to get him. They would not cut him any slack despite all he had done for Israel. They obsessed about a cigar here. A contract there. A submarine for a "brother-in-law." Didn't he deserve to wet his beak?  They even begrudged him tax-payer-funded ice cream and house renovations. 

Notably, Bibi did not raise concerns about police and judicial overreach when the cops came after Ehud Olmert for his corruption. Or after Moshe Katsav. Or the various corrupt politicians and clerics who fell afoul of the law.

Anyway, profoundly aggrieved, Netanyahu decided he had to stay in power at all costs. For the good of the country. Yes, for the good of the country.

So, he created a Hardal bloc. They were uncouth. Still, they shared his disdain for the rule of (secular) law. He had earlier (during the pandemic) given autonomy to the non-Zionist haredim. In victory (23.41% of the vote on November 1, 2022), he created a cabinet comprised of loyalists in a Likud Party refashioned in his image, the Hardal parties of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the ethnic chauvinist ultra-Orthodox haredi parties.

Together they would construct a new ethos for Israel. They have their differences yet are united in their anti-intellectualism, scapegoating, intolerance, appeal to authoritarianism, and demagogic leadership model. Some factions are messianic, while others are obsessed with mizrachi victimization. They all despise the "reform," the "leftists," the "Arab lovers," and the "secular." 

In truth, Israel’s divisions are not left versus right or observant versus secular. Come to a demonstration, and that becomes immediately plain. They are between two contrasting visions for the country.

Unfortunately, the benighted forces are ascending toward victory.

Here is what's particularly galling. That Diaspora Jews – those who think of themselves as enlightened and well-read, not as religious fanatics – would, with their money or smug punditry, sentence Israelis to live in a society where no branch of government would be empowered to protect civil liberties and minority rights.

And instead of being ashamed, they feel like players; they're in the game. Influencers. 

They are culpable for what is happening here. Their think tanks, media outlets, and monies have helped to push Israel to the brink of civil war.

All because they have an ideological vision of how Israel should be. The Israel they see from that suite at the King David Hotel or in the course of a frenzied junket. 

In a few weeks, the power of the Supreme Court to invalidate bills passed by the Knesset will be hamstrung. The government will give itself the authority to pack the court. Corrupt politicians will be koshered. The “national security minister” will have his own militia. The finance minister will have jurisdiction over the Civil Administration that rules the West Bank. The Bureau of Statistics will be politically shackled. 

What the Knesset will do when it comes back after its Passover break is anyone’s guess. Perhaps defund public broadcasting and expand the Voice of Netanyahu/Channel 14.

Democracy, need I remind you is not pure majority rule. You would not want to live in a country where all power is concentrated in the hands of one man or set of men (there are few women in the ruling clique). Where fanatics and clerics, and ethnic chauvinists call the shots.

Why are you sentencing us to a fate you would not want for yourselves?

***

Here is a link for an interview conducted last night with Nadav Argaman, the former Shin Bet chief. He seldom has if ever, been interviewed since leaving office. It is in Hebrew.

And here is the English text of President Herzog’s Wednesday address to the nation.

Both men warn that the country is on a disastrous course if Netanyahu is not brought to his senses.

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Citizens of Israel.

The serious security incident made public a few hours ago is clear proof that our enemies keenly detect the fraying of our Israeli sense of togetherness and are acting accordingly. This is not the only threat.

The last few weeks have been tearing us apart. They have damaged our economy, our security, Israel’s diplomatic ties, and especially Israel’s cohesion. Family Shabbat dinners have become warzones; friends and neighbors have become rivals. The discord is getting worse; the concerns, fears, anxieties—all, more tangible than ever.

I want to tell you something from the heart, and I very much hope that you will all take it to heart, too. Over the past few weeks, I have met thousands of citizens at the President’s Residence and outside it. The State of Israel’s finest sons and daughters. True patriots, on all sides of this dispute. Never in my life—never in my worst nightmares!—did I think I’d hear such words, even from a very small minority. I heard horrifying rhetoric. I heard real, deep hatred. I heard people on all sides, for whom, God forbid, the thought of blood in the streets is no longer shocking.

I am going to use a term that I have never used before, a term that horrifies every Israeli who hears it. Anyone who thinks that a genuine civil war, with human lives, is a line that we could never reach—has no idea what he is talking about. It is precisely now, in the State of Israel’s 75th year of independence, that the abyss is within touching distance. Today, I say to you what I told them: civil war is a red line! I will not allow it to happen! At any price. By any means. The IDF must be out of bounds, beyond all political dispute, and so must insubordination, of any sort.

We are in the throes of a profound crisis, but I truly and wholeheartedly believe that today we also stand on the brink of a momentous, historic opportunity. An opportunity for a balanced, wise, and consensual constitutional settlement of the relations between the branches of government in our Jewish and democratic state, in our beloved country. We are at a crossroads: a historic crisis or a formative constitutional moment.

Over the past few months, I have frequently stated that structural changes are required in the relations between the branches of government in Israel. I stand foursquare behind this determination. This will be to the benefit of our citizenry and to the benefit of our state. But fundamental and profound changes to the relations between the branches of government must be made wisely, to ensure that they bring blessings and good to the greatest number of people, to the broadest possible common ground. Such a common ground must reflect a broad spectrum of identities, beliefs, and worldviews, from all shades of the Israeli mosaic, including minority communities.

Indeed, full and absolute agreement is unachievable, but broad agreement on fundamental constitutional questions is the right thing at this critical moment. Israeli democracy is our lifeblood and we must protect it at all costs. Its firmest foundations, consistent with Jewish values, are binding on all of us.