The recent attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to control Israel’s judiciary has been halted, thanks to pressure from Israel’s civil society. However, this situation has exposed a troubling reality for the United States. For the first time, the leader of Israel has become an irrational actor, posing a threat to both Israelis and important American interests and values. President Biden and the pro-Israel Jewish lobby in America must immediately reassess their stance.
Netanyahu attempted to persuade both parties to trust the process and Israel’s democracy while, behind the scenes, intending to win free communal control. He aimed to rule as he pleased, with the help of religious zealots and Jewish supremacists who he used to block his corruption trial. Unfortunately, they all trusted him, and it turned out to be a lie.
The current Israeli government, led by Netanyahu, will go to lengths unparalleled by any previous government. Without someone to act as an independent brake on Netanyahu’s ambitions, his radical agenda will aim to govern Israel more like elected autocracies. This process disguised as judicial reform would bring Israel’s 75th anniversary year to the brink of civil war. The key to this government’s ambitions is control over Israel’s Supreme Court.
Recently, Netanyahu made an offer to suspend his attempts temporarily and give around a month to negotiate with opposition leaders for a compromise. Nevertheless, the government’s behavior signals that Netanyahu is becoming an irrational actor in international relations, and President Biden cannot trust his words. The US needs to ensure that Netanyahu does not engage in any kind of war of choice with Iran or Hezbollah, using US weapons without the full endorsement of Israel’s military high command.
Netanyahu’s son and closest political adviser, Yair, shared conspiratorial tweets with his many Twitter followers on the Israeli right. What rational Israeli prime minister would risk fracturing their military when Iran can rapidly produce a nuclear bomb and is forging diplomatic relations with Israel’s Arab allies?
Netanyahu’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, made the prime minister choose between maintaining his attempt at a judicial coup or freezing it without a national dialogue. Netanyahu fired Gallant instead of freezing his coup.
The rational Israeli prime minister would not risk one of the greatest achievements of US and Israeli diplomacy, the Abraham Accords, to push a judicial takeover intended to give the government’s Jewish supremacists free rein. Well-known politicians such as Bezalel Smotrich have brought the country to the brink of “civil war” by delivering speeches describing the Palestinian people as an invention. If Netanyahu’s company destabilizes Jordan, they will sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.
Netanyahu has been attempting to pass a law that would allow him to appoint a thrice-convicted tax cheat and financial scammer, Aryeh Deri, as a health and interior minister, with a promise to make him finance minister at the next cabinet reshuffle. His family’s behavior shows that they have turned on America with the same cynicism as Iran. Neither man should be allowed into America until they apologize.
It is time for American leaders to make it clear that they stand with the Israelis who took to the streets recently to ensure that the 75th anniversary of Israeli democracy will not be its last.
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