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As I watched in disbelief the onslaught on the U.S. Capitol, the shrine of the American democracy, I was wondering — like millions all around the free world — whether such a disastrous event could ever happen in my own country as well.
My initial response was that, no, this cannot possibly happen in Israel. Despite all the division in Israeli society, we are not as polarized as the American people. Because of our parliamentary system, any government is always based on a coalition of various parties. How can you possibly hate the ruling government with a passion, when people for whom you have voted are ministers in the same government?
Storming the Knesset, then, is not likely to happen. However, Israeli democracy still is under threat, perhaps in no less dangerous ways.
One of the most significant things during the drama in Washington D.C, almost went unnoticed. In his speech to supporters, before sending them marching on the Capitol, President Trump complained about the three Supreme Court justices he had appointed. They had thrown out his baseless allegations against election fraud. Trump explained this “ungratefulness” by blaming the media for portraying the three justices as being his puppets, “(a)nd the only way they get out is to rule against Trump.”
While it is true that as law professors Lee Epstein and Eric Posner have shown, there is some “loyalty effect” between justices and the presidents who have appointed them, which is why Trump’s expectation that those three justices automatically would rule in his favor — even when his arguments had no evidence or legal basis whatsoever — is alarming.
This brings me back to Israeli. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a soul mate of Donald Trump, except that he is much more sophisticated. Facing serious charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, for which he might go to jail, if convicted, he managed to convince his supporters that by allegedly framing him, “the left and the media” cooked up a plot to rob Netanyahu supporters of their legitimate vote.
However, unlike Trump, who had sent his troops to disrupt a lawful process, Netanyahu, the smarter of the two, found a more effective way: He did it himself. First, he discredited the police officers investigating his cases. Then he badmouthed the attorneys involved. When this didn’t work, either, he scaled up his efforts and attacked the attorney general. Eventually, stopping at nothing, like his American counterpart, he took on the court itself.
On May 24, the first day Netanyahu’s case was heard at the Jerusalem District Court, our prime minister staged an unbelievable show. His bodyguards appropriated a whole floor, brought in a podium with the Menorah, Israel’s national emblem and Netanyahu, surrounded by a dozen of his most servile Likud ministers and Knesset members, gave his usual spiel about a coup against the voters’ will: “People from the police and prosecution got together with left-wing journalists to fabricate ridiculous, bizarre cases against me.”
While this wasn’t violent like the Washington mayhem, it was as damaging to people’s trust in the rule of law.
When this attempt failed as well, Netanyahu pulled another trick: He took Israel — in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis — to the fourth elections in two years, hoping to form a coalition that would secure him immunity. And, just when we thought we had seen it all, then “Uvda,” the Israeli version of CBS’ “60 Minutes,” recently revealed that a partner of Netanyahu’s lawyer schemed to get family members of the judges overseeing the case to make remarks against Netanyahu, in order to discredit them.
In Washington, Jerusalem and elsewhere, democracy is challenged in many ways. Citizens, armed with the free press that both Trump and Netanyahu keep attacking, should be more vigilant than ever.
Uri Dromi was the spokesman of the Rabin and Peres governments, 1992-1996.
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