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Why Israelis Are Revolting Against Netanyahu And What It Really Means

Israel’s political and economic system has come to a standstill as a result of mass demonstrations, that have captured the attention of international media. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis, including members of Israel’s political and security establishment, took to the streets of Tel Aviv, whilst demonstrators stormed police barricades outside their Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s, home in occupied Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has managed to survive a vote of no-confidence, fire his sitting defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and stir chaos between the Israeli far-right and the rest of its (largely right-wing) population on the streets. Weeks ago, Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, had warned that Israel could be on its way to civil war. All of this is due to Israeli PM Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reforms, which would essentially strip away judicial oversight of government legislative power.

The protest movement, which is characterized by the Israeli premier as “left-wing”, has clearly and proudly shown itself to be a mix of centrist liberal and right-wing voters. In the Israeli political scene there is nothing significant that could be characterized as “the Left” by the standards of the rest of the world, and so using the term “leftist” to describe those who are not Netanyahu’s extremist coalition makes little sense. When it comes to these judicial reforms, many Israelis are worried that taking away judicial oversight of the Knesset would pave the way to eroding their favoured form of “liberal democracy” and could result in theocracy in its place. Much of Israel’s secular population feels threatened by this prospect, with the Israeli political system’s weakness coming as a result of Tel Aviv never having adopted a constitution and instead appropriating the preceding British Mandate system in many respects.

 

These demonstrations, that have taken Israel by storm, are perhaps the biggest challenge yet of Benjamin Netanyahu’s political career, as he is faced with a double-edged sword scenario. On the one hand, if Benjamin Netanyahu decides to officially cancel the judicial reforms, he could lose the support or at least erode trust with his coalition partners. The Religious Zionism alliance, currently the second largest party in the ruling coalition, is staunchly in favor of pushing through the judicial reforms and if it was to withdraw from the government of Netanyahu, he would no longer have the Knesset majority needed to form a government. On the other hand, if Netanyahu does not postpone the judicial reforms, the street protests will continue, a general strike could be declared, and the country could disintegrate into chaos. Another problem for the PM is his corruption trial, which is still pending a result. If he stays in power, Benjamin Netanyahu is working on passing a bill that would keep him, as a sitting Prime Minister, out of jail, but if his government collapses, his protection is over.

Against this backdrop, we also have the ongoing persecution of the Palestinian people that continues to escalate. Israel has almost killed 100 Palestinians inside the West Bank, just in the first three months of this year, which comes without any major military operation having been declared, as of yet. What is rather interesting, when we look at the Israeli protest movement that has been going on for months now, is that it is beginning to pose a serious threat to Israel’s national stability and security. However, despite clashes between the Israeli police and protesters, there has not been one single Israeli who has been shot in the head with an explosive bullet, nor any videos showing under-age children being brutally beaten and arrested.

 

(Tel Aviv highway: Police trying to disperse the protest 3/27/23)

Western media accurately covers the largely peaceful actions taken by Israeli Jewish demonstrators and there is no need for shooting thousands of unarmed Israelis. Which is quite weird, because in 2018 the Western media reported the Israeli narrative that killing protesters was necessary during the Great Return of March, where Palestinians from the illegally besieged Gaza Strip marched up to the separation fence with Israel. In fact, the Gaza demonstrations that started on March 30, 2018, were less threatening to Israel’s security, yet the way Israel dealt with that protest was over 300 times more lethal than today’s “democracy” protests.

Beyond the clearly racist double-standards — whereby an Israeli Jew can protest in peace whilst the same act for a Palestinian is a death sentence — what is important is how the internal turmoil determines Tel Aviv’s next move. What has become a fear amongst many in the region, is that Lebanon or Gaza may become potential battle grounds that are used to distract the Israeli public and unite them against a common enemy. The armed movements inside the Gaza Strip, in addition to Hezbollah in Lebanon, understand that this could be a possibility and so strategically wait, hoping to see further turmoil on the streets of Tel Aviv, weakening their enemy without lifting a finger.

The challenge now facing Israel is two-fold; a Prime Minister that seems to care about himself more than the regime he runs, and a growing illegal settler movement that is hell bent on creating a theocratic Jewish biblical kingdom that will purge anyone that isn’t of their preferred ethnic-religious background. Israel tried to maintain a liberal democracy for Jews only, whilst maintaining a brutal apartheid system and expanding its territorial boundaries continuously, never preparing itself for the day when the contradiction, of living in an apartheid regime calling itself a democracy, would come back to bite them. The settlement expansion inside the West Bank and East Jerusalem was supposed to be a slow way of gaining ground, now the settlers who were once on the fringe of Israeli politics and banned from running for office, are now the mainstream and could be the only thing between the Prime Minister and a jail cell.

Robert Inlakesh
Robert Inlakesh
Robert Inlakesh is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, writer, Middle-East analyst & news correspondent for The Last American Vagabond.
https://twitter.com/falasteen47

6 Replies to “Why Israelis Are Revolting Against Netanyahu And What It Really Means

  1. Ever consider the possibility that what’s happening in Israel is what was foretold would happen long ago?

  2. There’s no such thing as ‘liberal democracy’… we both know that politics is theatre for public consumption and elections are the illusion of participation.

  3. who paid for all those israeli flags. Carbon stamp “look” of the 2014 Ukraine color revolution, and protests now in Poland, Hungary etc. Why do all “democracy” protests look exactly like a CIA/Mossad color revolution?

  4. who paid for all those israeli flags. Carbon copy “look” of the 2014 Ukraine color revolution, and protests now in Poland, Hungary etc. Why do all “democracy” protests look exactly like a CIA/Mossad/Soros color revolution?

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