The workers along with the bosses. The head of the most powerful trade union announces the general strike with the managers and entrepreneurs of the largest companies: “To stop this country’s race into the abyss”. Flights from Ben Gurion Airport, universities and motorists blocked by the processions in traffic are already stopping. Also in the 11th week of protests, also at 1am, Israelis took to the streets after Benjamin Netanyahu decided to overthrow Yoav Galant.
The defense minister was the first to order a break in the ranks and called on Bibi, as he is known, to curb the violent march through parliament of the justice plan, which the opposition sees as a lightning bolt aimed at dismantling democracy.
“The divide in society affects the army. This situation poses a serious and imminent danger to the country. I will not allow it,” said the former general, who entered Netanyahu’s Likud policy. It cost him his job, but his gesture has opened some cracks in the far-right coalition.
Other Likud MPs are calling for a break, and the two ultra-Orthodox parties are also reconsidering. In New York, Consul Asaf Zamir left in protest, diplomats and State Department officials immediately had difficulty selling the “reform” in international capitals. Those uninterested in making it acceptable, even to the Israelis, are Yair Levin, the justice minister, and Simcha Rothman, the head of the commission, who are moving ahead with close votes and a goal of getting the part through by the weekend fundamental to them (and most opposed by protesters): to ensure executive control over judges, even the Supreme Court. News from home had followed the Conservative leader in London as well and the lobster, even if cooked by Gordon Ramsay, must have stuck in his stomach: it had been photographed by neighbors at the table while he was reading the British chef’s recipes enjoyed after meeting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
So on the already overflowing plate of problems to be solved was the criticism of having defiled the Shabbat – dinner was Friday night – and having eaten a shellfish, which was forbidden by the Jewish religion.
From Washington, the Americans say they are “deeply concerned” and echo Galant’s words: “The ability of the armed forces to respond may be at risk.”
Refusing to report for training, the reservists are already disrupting the operations of elite units such as Fliegerstaffel 69 (they are the pilots of the most advanced F-15i, the ones who should direct a possible mission against the nuclear centers developed by Tehran, an attack, which the Prime Minister repeats, which he assesses more and more carefully). Special forces fighters (even the respected Sayeret Matkal, in which Netanyahu served) are also rebelling, right down to the soldiers who are forced to serve in the Palestinian Territories, where there would have been a surge in waivers of up to 15 percent.
The General Staff has urged Israeli journalists to make their fears public: “The enemies see us as weak, they calculate that our ability to respond to an attack is limited,” explained a source, indicating that this analysis was made by shared with the secret services.