It’s a small world. And there is nothing to stop the protests over the government’s judicial reform. Wherever government members go, there are demonstrators loudly chanting “Demo-kra-tia!” and screaming “Busha!” (Shame!)
Well, shame on them.
The protests long ago stopped being about the judicial reform (if they ever were) and became another way to try to topple the government. This is not about democracy, but the effort to bring down the elected prime minister, no matter what.
When Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to the US this week to address the United Nations General Assembly and to meet with a lineup of international figures – including US President Joe Biden – he did so as the democratically elected Israeli prime minister: like it or not; like him, or not.
The demonstrators who followed him there, together with Israelis and Jews living in the US, were expressing their own opinions, but they can not claim to be speaking – or shouting – for all Israelis. In more than 35 weeks of protests, it was clear that these particular demonstrators represent a minority – albeit a very vocal minority. They can’t pretend to represent Arab citizens; the ultra-Orthodox; the majority of the religious public; the residents of underdeveloped neighborhoods and towns; and most of those who gave the current coalition 64 seats.
It’s not a dream team, but it is the government that fairly assumed power and has a right to use it – not to trample on the rights of minorities but to implement legislation reflecting its worldview, and this includes restoring the balance of power between the Supreme Court and the Knesset.
The theatrical scenes created by the protesters in the US this week might have been aimed at the prime minister – or “crime minister” in the protesters’ argot – but they weakened the country as a whole.
Protests that hurt all of Israel
Screening an image of Netanyahu in an orange prison uniform with the words “Welcome to Alcatraz, Bibi,” on the walls of the infamous San Fransisco jail while the prime minister was in the area to meet with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk shows creativity, it does not, however, foster an atmosphere aimed at a creating a productive meeting. The protest was sponsored by UnXeptable, an organization launched by Israeli expats. Their concern for the country where they don’t reside is touching; it touches those of us who still live here.
Even more outrageous were the artistic antics in New York, which included the screening last week of giant protest slogans on UN headquarters reading, “Don’t Believe Crime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” and an image of Netanyahu with a growing Pinocchio-style nose and a similar message in Times Square.
At least the demonstrators had more sense (or respect) than to try blocking the New York traffic à la the Kaplan Force protesters in Tel Aviv.
These – extremely well-funded – protests might be aimed at Netanyahu but they could torpedo more than just his trip. The message coming out loud and clear via the protesters’ megaphones is “Don’t trust the Israeli prime minister.” The problem is, Netanyahu was not in New York to discuss Israel’s domestic judicial system but to discuss the Iranian threat, Palestinian terrorism, expanding normalization in the Arab world – particularly to Saudi Arabia – and to promote economic and other ties, including the newly touted train track from India to Europe via Israel and other countries in the Middle East.
There are those who don’t want the prime minister to succeed, no matter the cost and consequences. I include in this category the IDF pilots and other elite veterans refusing to serve.
A comment made by the prime minister at the airport created a stir even before he took off. “This is, I think, the 12th time that I am going to appear at the UN as prime minister; there have always been demonstrations in favor of Israel and against Israel,” he said. “But this time we are seeing demonstrations against Israel by people who have joined forces with the PLO, Iran, and others.”
The last part of the remark took flight in its own way, going viral in cyberspace. The Prime Minister’s Office issued a (rare) clarification, rephrasing it as meaning: “They will be demonstrating at the same time as supporters of the PLO and BDS, which has never happened before.”
This of course did nothing to calm the premier’s many opponents.
The theatrics don’t harm just Netanyahu on the international stage. They have a lasting impact on the credibility and respectability of Israel in the global arena, no matter who is leading the government. There has long been an unwritten agreement among Israelis that protests at home are legitimate but you don’t wash your dirty laundry in public – let alone wave it as a white flag.
As The Jerusalem Post’s Herb Keinon put it: “Do supporters of Israel – do Israelis abroad, or American Jews – really not want the world to believe him when he presents intelligence information regarding Iran’s nuclear progress? If Netanyahu turns to Congress after a future confrontation in Gaza in search of emergency funding for the Iron Dome, do they really want the members of Congress to think that this is a man who cannot be believed?”
The protests are aimed at making Netanyahu feel uncomfortable, but they should make not only him squirm.
Those who try to look for the positive make the point that the demonstrations show the world how passionately Israelis care about democracy and human rights. But we’re long past that stage. Calling on the US administration to “save Israel from itself” is a brazen call for foreign intervention. It could be a battle cry. And like all battles, you know how it starts but no one knows how it will end.
AMONG THE long list of grievances the anti-government protesters have voiced against the prime minister is his preference to give interviews in English to the foreign media rather than to the Israeli press. There’s something to that complaint. But plenty of Netanyahu’s opponents also make use of foreign media to make their points heard – in some cases, outrageous points.
Ehud Barak, for example, was back in fine form this week telling a CBS interview on Tuesday that Netanyahu’s government “is blatantly illegitimate, even illegal.” Thus the former prime minister, who has never forgiven Netanyahu for being elected PM three times, delegitimized the votes of half the country.
In a Zoom meeting held during the COVID crisis in 2020, which was published in July, Barak told a forum of senior IAF veterans how a historian friend had told him, “Ehud, they’ll call on you when there are bodies floating in the Yarkon [River].” He clarified that he specifically meant the bodies of Jews killed by Jews.
Barak returned to his talk of civil war this week telling CBS: “Some people might lose their lives along the way. We’ll have to face toil and sweat and tears. There might be some violence, which always comes from the right wing.”
Barak’s fantasies are a nightmare. This is the type of talk that tears Israelis apart and drives a wedge between Israel and the Diaspora.
In a pre-Rosh Hashanah article in Israel Hayom titled “The Hidden Israeli Consensus,” thinker Micah Goodman says that there are common denominators that might be less visible but still bind us. Most Israelis are neither far-left nor far-right, Goodman notes. And most Israelis identify with the Declaration of Independence, which defines the state as the national home of the Jewish people and at the same time grants full and equal rights to all its citizens.
A salient point of Goodman’s article is that Israel, like other countries, is currently so divided that people focus on the question of “who” instead of “what.”
In the past, politicians voted according to the essence of legislation and not according to who proposed it. It was the proposal that was judged as being good or bad, rather than the person behind it.
It is time to make sure not to blindly follow one side or the other but to judge each decision and move on its own merit. There is no reason to insist on all or nothing, based solely on whether something was proposed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin or by Opposition leader Yair Lapid. There is room for compromise.
Above all, there is room for commonsense – to step back and think instead of blindly following a leader, whichever leader, over the edge of a precipice. No matter what, we are bound together; when one side pulls too hard, we’re all in danger of falling down.
liat@jpost.com