At the Brink: Israeli Combat Pilots and President Biden Step Up to Stop Netanyahu’s Attack on Democracy 🔥🔥🔥

Widespread opposition, reservists refusing to show up for duty and a strained relationship with the United States have left Israel teetering on the edge of a precipice

Since filing the column, below, for the National Post newspaper last night, it feels like a decade has passed. The pace of developments in Israel in the midst of this ongoing crisis is non-stop shock and awe.

It has been a particularly intense week, following the passage of first reading of the initial Bill of the coalition government’s wildly controversial and divisive judicial reform legislation. The Bill is expected to sail through second and third readings on Tuesday next week, soon after becoming law. And then things will really heat up.

Expectations are that the numbers of those refusing to show up for reserve duty will skyrocket from the few hundred with which the IDF contends today. And that will immediately impact the country’s war readiness. This, in an environment where the external threats to Israel are considered to be at 1973 levels, if not higher. In other words, the security situation is very, very dire.

An hour or so ago, I wrapped up an interview with Prof. Karnit Flug, former Governor of the Bank of Israel, Professor at the Hebrew Univeristy and V.P. of Research at the Israel Democracy Institute. Prof. Flug focuses her comments on the impact of the proposed judicial reform on the Israeli economy and her concerns are deep and profound. In a second podcast we will also analyze carefully the Bill set to clear third reading next week and why so many Israelis – and US President Biden – are so  - freaked out. I mean, there’s no other way to put it.

Earlier this week, I had a brief correspondence with a well-connected American-Israeli who is strongly committed to the judicial reform. Their view is that the deep concerns being expressed regarding the future of liberal democracy in Israel are nothing more than a smokescreen. What the protesters and opponents to the legislation really seek, in this person’s opinion,  is to preserve their elitist, closed-shop privilege and control of key institutions in order to perpetuate “Tel Aviv democracy.”

Name calling and verbal bullying has become a hallmark of this coalition government and its supporters. If you oppose then you must be a leftist anarchist from the State of Tel Aviv.

Who knew that when I chose the name for this publication and podcast that I would be so aligned with the zeitgeist?

We are posting here my National Post column, hot off the press today. More written and podcast content to come next week.

Have a great weekend, in the meantime, and Shabbat Shalom.

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TEL AVIV — Not since 1973 has Israel faced a crisis that could so profoundly affect the future of the Jewish state as it does today. Except that this time the threat is from within.

As night fell on Tuesday, the third “Day of Disruption” in as many weeks continued to roil the country. What began that morning as civil disobedience protests all over the country, in opposition to the judicial reform legislation being rammed through the Knesset by the coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, devolved into violence.

A majority of Israelis — including many Likud voters — are opposed to the reforms. At the fore of these demonstrations have been those who have defended the country in elite combat units, the storied Israeli air force and the country’s equivalent of Navy Seals. Not surprisingly, they continue to represent the economic and financial lifeblood of the start-up nation, and they are primed for the battle of their lives.

The demographic and professional diversity of those — aside from the Israel Defence Forces reservists — who virulently oppose the government’s judicial reforms is astonishing. They include former governors of the Bank of Israel, IDF chiefs of staff, heads of the Mossad, commanders of the air force, ministers of defence, CEOs and entrepreneurs, judges, lawyers, academics, physicians and more.

The movement represents a stunning range of talent, partisan loyalties and ethnicities — a reflection of the modern, miraculously successful, diverse state of Israel — and they are willing to fight to the bitter end to protect Israel’s democratic nature. Meanwhile, Netanyahu and his coalition partners have shown their disdain for all who dissent from the prime minister’s diktats, branding them as leftist, elitist anarchists.

Earlier this week, I met with a friend who served in a very famous battle that received close international scrutiny. He paid an incomprehensible price, physically and psychologically. “For what did I endure the harsh training, the risks, the horrific injuries, all of it? For what? To support an emerging dictatorship?” he asked.

In the last week, snowball metaphors have been way overused in Israel, as the protest momentum builds to a dangerously heightened level of ferocity and tenacity. Hundreds of army reservists, including combat pilots and medical personnel, have pledged not to show up for duty — something that is unprecedented and previously unimaginable in this besieged country, which is currently facing a dire security situation.

The IDF simply cannot withstand mutiny at this level. Both the IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant are warning publicly that the country is perilously close to the precipice.

After meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House on Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concern over the future of America’s relationship with Israel in an interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Paraphrasing the president, Friedman wrote that, “Biden is now deeply worried for the stability and future of Israel,” and that Netanyahu’s actions could make it “difficult to sustain the special relationship that Israel and America have enjoyed for the last 75 years.”

In other words, if you persist in reforming your system so that there are no checks and balances on the majority in the legislature, and the judiciary is not considered to be independent of the political leadership, then we have a very, very serious problem.

Among his more overt and moving pleas to Netanyahu — using a member of the media as his conduit — Biden said: “Finding consensus on controversial areas of policy means taking the time you need. For significant changes, that’s essential. So my recommendation to Israeli leaders is not to rush. I believe the best outcome is to continue to seek the broadest possible consensus here.”

This warning from one of the most pro-Israel presidents is deeply concerning. Israel relies on American support — diplomatically and militarily — for its survival. And the majority of Israelis appear to agree with President Biden.

In this country, security is the great unifier. When there is a threat, all disagreements are set aside and Israelis show up. Until now, at least. The cream of the country — without whom this nation would fail — are saying: “No further.”

But Netanyahu and his coalition partners are forging ahead with the first step of their judicial reform plan. Many believe that should the bill amending the quasi-constitutional Basic Law on the judiciary pass third reading, as planned, next week, it could be the end of liberal democracy in Israel.

The bill would strip the Supreme Court of the power to review many decisions and appointments made by elected officials at the national level on the basis of “reasonableness.” This sounds benign, but it marks the beginning of a descent into the abyss, to borrow a line from President Herzog.

Netanyahu and his religious extremist coalition partners loathe the judiciary, each for their own reasons. What they do agree on is that the perhaps overly-activist Supreme Court and judicial institutions in Israel have, in effect, quietly undermined democracy by reviewing and rejecting many government decisions and policies.

What this government much prefers is to have a free hand to do and appoint at will, with no interference. In light of the fact that there is no upper legislative chamber or constitution in Israel, the Supreme Court is the first and final check and balance on the potential tyranny of the majority. As are key officials like the attorney general.

The “system” is believed by Netanyahu to have unfairly persecuted him for years. Add to that the Supreme Court’s decision in March that Netanyahu’s appointment of Aryeh Deri to the positions of Minister of Interior and Health were “extremely unreasonable,” due to his past criminal convictions. On that basis, the Court held that Deri was not allowed to occupy such high office which engaged the public trust — under Israel’s Basic Law.

Netanyahu and his allies in the Knesset want revenge. And the reasonableness bill will achieve that.

In Netanyahu’s vision, the court will not only be eviscerated, but also conjoined with the political leadership, removing any vestige of judicial independence. Whatever such a regime is called, it is not a liberal democracy. This is the heart of the battle that is gutting the soul of the nation.

Democracy is a multi-faceted form of governing, of which majority will is just one important aspect. Bicameral legislatures and independent judiciaries are also indispensable, as they serve as checks and balances on the temptation for majorities to tilt to tyranny. Which is exactly what many Israelis believe is happening in their country, in plain sight.

The so-called reasonableness bill is the first of what is expected to be a slew of legislation pertaining to the judicial reform promoted by the current government. And the protesters regard it as an initial step in a much more sinister legislative plan that they believe will result in the destruction of liberal democracy in Israel.

Many IDF soldiers and reservists have served in operations and wars with which they disagreed. They understand that security is paramount. But, they say, this is not about a political disagreement. They will not take orders from a government that disembowels its independent judiciary, as it is a fundamental feature of a liberal democracy.

In Israel, that is tantamount to domestic suicide. “We pledged to serve the kingdom,” a group of pilots stated recently. “Not the king.” And that kingdom is the liberal democratic state of Israel, not an authoritarian theocracy.