Ruth Marks Eglash
Jewish Insider, July 19, 2023
“With little to no constructive dialogue between supporters and opponents of the Netanyahu government’s designs for the judiciary, it’s difficult to identify any immediate path to ending this zero-sum game, which will continue to threaten Israel’s internal cohesion and cast the issue of America’s friendship for Israel as a prominent wedge on Capitol Hill.”
In the midst of one of the hottest weeks of Israel’s long, hot summer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might very well have found himself at the boiling point.
As members of his ruling coalition race to push through legislation that will alter a key basic law – a clause dealing with the ability of the Supreme Court to void government decisions deemed as “unreasonable” – ahead of the Knesset’s summer recess on July 30, hundreds of thousands of civilians are ramping up their protests against what they see as an immediate threat to the country’s democratic nature. Labor unions are threatening strikes that could cripple the economy, reservists are vowing not to serve in the military and even the American president is applying pressure on Netanyahu to dial it down.
On Monday night, President Joe Biden spoke via phone with the Israeli leader emphasizing, among other things, the need for the “broadest possible consensus,” on anything relating to the controversial judicial reforms.
With the White House scrutinizing events in Israel closely, as well as with the shekel dropping to record lows and complaints from the army’s chief of general staff on Tuesday that the civic dissension poses a serious threat to national security, Netanyahu must now decide whether to proceed with the controversial reforms or reevaluate, a move that could end up breaking apart his already tumultuous coalition.
“Netanyahu, as usual, is riding on the back of the tiger,” Gideon Rahat, a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Jewish Insider.
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