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By Jonathan S. Tobin
(MARCH 31, 2023 / JNS) In the aftermath of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s waving of the white flag on his government’s efforts to pass judicial reform, his opponents have been taking some victory laps. Those who took to the streets in their hundreds of thousands, blocked highways, pulled money out of the country or refused reserve duty—bolstered by those who cheered them on from the sidelines—all believe they’ve done a marvelous thing.
From their point of view, they’ve not only defended Israeli democracy against the threat of authoritarian or dictatorial rule at the hands of the coalition that won last November’s election. They also think that their protests were, in and of themselves, a beautiful demonstration of the splendor of democratic culture. In this telling, “the people” rose up and made their voices heard and made the powerful listen.
There’s some truth to that even if much of it is being expressed more as an exercise in virtue signaling than proof of their devotion to democracy. But as much as the right to peaceful protest must be protected along with the rights of citizens to petition their government for a redress of grievances, the notion that this was nothing more than a debate about whether Israel is to remain a democracy is disingenuous.
A great many Israelis were appalled at the notion of Netanyahu returning to power and that he would be forming a government by allying with the religious parties.
That prospect outraged the liberal secular sector of society that largely makes up the media, cultural, business, legal and academic establishments in Israel. Even scarier for them was the prospect that the chances of the parties of the left ever being able to form a majority seemed to be getting smaller with each passing year as the religious population continued to outgrow the rest of the country.
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