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For decades, his supporters have hailed Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister for over a fifth of this country’s lifespan, as “Bibi, King of Israel.”
The title has never been more appropriate than today. Back on the national political throne after a brief interregnum, Netanyahu wields extraordinary power as the leader of a largely like-minded far-right coalition, and he is determined to expand his influence even further by emasculating the only defense against his or any other government’s excesses, the Supreme Court. If he proves able to take the court’s independence and abilities away, Israel will indeed be his kingdom.
However, as with monarchs over the millennia, the accumulation of absolute power has coincided with our ruler’s inability to separate his own personal interests from those of the state, a growing certainty that he and only he can effectively lead Israel, the annihilation of dissenting voices , the cultivation of a surrounding chorus of “yes” men (and very few women), and the resulting belief that all means are legitimate and necessary to maintain his rule.
The tragedy for the kingdom is that Netanyahu set it on the path to destruction. To quote Tuesday’s reluctant summary by our usually understated President Isaac Herzog, the judicial revolution Netanyahu intends to smash through Parliament threatens to “consume us all.”
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Why would “King Bibi” act in such an obviously dangerous way – not only destroying justice but also empowering criminals and homophobes and messianists and theocrats at his cabinet table?
In large part because his overriding self-interest requires him to withdraw from his trial, in the process defeating the supposedly left-wing Ashkenazi elites — in the police, prosecutors, media and politicians — who have joined forces to oppose him to be investigated, charged and in the dock for crimes he firmly believes he did not commit and actions he insists were not criminal.
As he sees it, the successors of the same academic elites who conspired against his father sought to sabotage him in what he often described as a political coup. They even succeeded for a short time. But now he’s back in power, anxious to have the last word and confident—with no little support from his own immediate family—that his success will be Israel’s success.
A phased plan
His original emissary is the geeky obsessive he sidelined for years and has now been unleashed as his justice minister, Yariv Levin. Just six days after the coalition took office, Levin was dispatched to present his long-worded, ridiculously misnamed “reform” proposals — a four-point plan to ensure our judiciary cannot protect Israelis from abuses by the ruling coalition . Far from being a bona fide, legitimate attempt to carefully and consensually balance the delicate balance between executive and judiciary, it represents an imposed, rapidly implemented revolution in the way Israel is governed that is nearly unlimited to the political majority gives power.
However, as Levin noted, these proposals are only the “first stage” in the reshaping of Israeli governance. Subsequent stages, it is readily acknowledged, include the much-discussed division of the Israeli Attorney General’s two roles – as chief adviser to the government and as head of the prosecutor’s office.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin holds a press conference in the Knesset on January 4, 2023, presenting his plans to overhaul Israel’s judicial system. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
While Levin’s first phase of the overhaul is devastating for Israeli democracy, the idea of splitting the attorney general’s responsibilities between two officials is not without merit. But for Netanyahu, who wants to escape his trial, it offers the perfect way out. For a carefully chosen chief prosecutor would be entitled to reconsider the charges against the prime minister and would reliably conclude from his appointees that Netanyahu has no reasonable case to answer. An independent, capable Supreme Court might well have other ideas; but Levin’s “first stage,” if implemented, will have ensured that there is no independent, competent Supreme Court.
Younger, energetic, insincere allies
Likud’s ruling partners have every interest in helping Netanyahu – because he empowers them, because it serves their interests and because they have their own problems with these meddling judges. The court does not let the ultra-Orthodox parties fully legislate their discriminatory broad exemption from military service; it will not allow the far right to legalize settlements built on private Palestinian land; it protects against anti-Arab racism and anti-LGBTQ discrimination; it bans repeat criminals from the ministerial office.
Netanyahu is not a military adventurer. He is not a theocrat. He recognizes the importance of close ties with the United States and that they depend on the intimacy that only two democracies can share. He served for years within the IDF’s clear chain of command and knows the life-or-death importance of that clarity. He does not represent supremacist Judaism. As a secular Jew, he does not despise non-Orthodox Judaism and does not seek to alienate the diaspora without reason. He is immensely and rightly proud that Israel can serve as a safe haven for all those who are persecuted as Jews, regardless of whether they fit the halachic designation of Judaism. He promoted Israel’s amazing technology sector and understands better than almost anyone how important it is to the economy, and more broadly to Israel’s ability to protect itself from its enemies. And he appreciates the value of an independent Supreme Court – to protect rights within Israel and as a bulwark against Israel’s powerful external critics, particularly when it comes to Israeli policy towards the Palestinians.
In one way or another, to some extent, his various coalition allies hold wildly different positions on one or more of these issues. They are not all tolerant in their Judaism. They are certainly not all Democrats. They are not all Zionists.
But he needs them to defenestrate the justice system, “rebalance” the branches of government in his favor, and bring an end to his trial.
And finally – even if it funds the ultra-Orthodox schools and yeshiva networks that undermine the workforce; even as pro-theocracy decisions and bills proliferate, from restricting vital infrastructure work on Shabbat to funding gender-segregated public events to barring hamez (leaven) from hospitals on Passover; Although his coalition agreements provide for discrimination against anti-Arabs and LGBTQ people, he claims he can curb their more outrageous leanings. After all, he is King Bibi.
And yet you can be sure that the Aryeh Deris, Bezalel Smotrichs and Itamar Ben Gvirs — energetic, relentless, younger — believe they’ll have the final say, even if they insincerely kiss his metaphorical ring.
Religious Zionism party leader MK Bezalel Smotrich (right) with Otzma Yehudit party leader MK Itamar Ben Gvir in the Knesset, December 28, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
A less complacent, arrogant, and ineffective opposition could have prevented the November 1 election result that gave Netanyahu and his allies such a decisive majority when the referendum came out nearly 50-50.
A previous iteration of his own Likud would have opposed the betrayal of the liberal, democratic principles championed by Menachem Begin, the leader who first brought the party to power. But the Begins, father and son, are gone, and so are the Meridors and even the Steinitzes, leaving only the poets and barkats who should know better, and a collection of fresher, more ambitious faces, often disregarded by their allies further to the right to be distinguished, with any internal disagreement easily silenced by the promise of a meaningless ministry or marginal committee chair.
What to do
And so it falls to the Israeli public majority – those who voted against these coalition parties and those who supported them but now oppose key aspects of their agenda – to try to thwart the monarchy, to use any legal means to avert it this looming tragedy. To protect the High Court, who so far have shown no sign of a willingness to pack up and go home. To demonstrate not in tens of thousands, but in hundreds of thousands.
Crowds estimated at over 100,000 protest in Tel Aviv on January 21, 2023 against the government’s proposed sweeping changes to the justice system. (Flash90)
Efforts are already in full swing. The lawyers send their warnings, as do the university administrations, the bankers and the economists. The techies protest and warn of a brain drain.
Jewish diaspora leaders, who are often commendably reluctant to interfere in Israeli affairs, need to internalize that, to quote Herzog again, the fate of our remarkable country, home of the global Jewish people, is at stake. And they should use as much leverage as possible to effectively convey their concerns.
And so are our international allies, led by the United States, who must demonstrate their friendship and protect their interests by pointing out the consequences for our close mutual alliance if the underlying values are no longer shared.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog addresses the Ashmoret conference in Tel Aviv on January 24, 2023.
“Israel’s democratic foundations, including the judicial system and human rights and freedoms, are sacred and we must protect them and the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence,” urged our President, elected in 2021 by an unprecedented consensus of 87 of the 120 Knesset members, precisely the kind of consensus that should guide any responsible effort to truly “reform” the core components of our democracy.
“I fear that we are on the verge of an internal battle that could consume us all,” Herzog warned on Tuesday. “The lack of dialogue tears us apart, and I’ll tell you loud and clear: This powder keg is about to explode. This is an emergency.”
“During the reigns of the House of David and the Hasmoneans,” Herzog continued, “Jewish states were established in the land of Israel, and twice they collapsed before reaching their 80th anniversary.”
That must not happen in the age of King Bibi.