The situation in Israel from the point of view of an resident of Eilat
What an amazing and vibrant country Israel has proved to be. Those who live outside could not imagine the emotion and determination on both sides of the divide that culminated in a general strike that was called with only 10 minutes notice!
The elected government who came to power due to the proportional representation system is in fact anything but democratic, if you take the meaning of democracy as the will of the people.
Those who scream and shout that there is no democracy in Israel saw quite clearly that the people rule and even Bibi’s amazing political agility could not hold the people back and his minority partners who were calling the shots do not in fact hold the power they thought they might. Tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands flocked to the streets in protest in what threatened to be a civil war as the armed forces had mostly supported the protesters, leaving Bibi, I would imagine in fear for his life.
But Israel being Israel, when the protesters marched on the ultra religious area of Bnei Brak, they were greeted by cakes and refreshments to the beautiful tune of Shalom Aleichem. Even the protesters ended up singing with tears in their eyes.
The proposed reforms to the judiciary are not 100% wrong, as the Judiciary does in fact hold more power than the Knesset, and it is claimed that the make up on the Judiciary is not balanced. Even the opposition agree there are reforms needed. But major reforms need major discussions, and there has been no discussions. Furthermore, the government are trying to wash through laws that allow convicted criminals that are unfit for office to hold ministerial posts. Ben Gvir is reported to be demanding a civil militia !!
Chutzpadik, is too mild a word. The manner in which the government was behaving was bringing Israel into disrepute all around the world and the one thing Israel doesn’t need more of , is demonisation. The Likud party led by Bibi has huge support in the country, but due to the total hysteria of the centre left’s refusal to sit with Bibi, he made a pact with the devil and brought far right extremists into the government who hold the balance of power and he seemingly lost control of his running mates.
Eventually, at the bitter end it would seem Bibi realises he cannot win and is between a rock and a hard place and at last his love of Israel and his vanity not to go down in history as a bad guy, triumphed over his love of himself and his power. He has backed down (although only temporarily ) from the reforms to the anger of his right wing partners, who may very well pull out of the government causing it to collapse.
The electoral threshold must be raised ,thereby ousting the very small extreme parties from both sides that punch well above their weight, repeatedly holding governments to ransom with their demands in exchange for support. It has proven a recipe for corruption and stifles all progress.
Ultimately, a constitution needs to be agreed and adopted, so Israel could hold its place among western democracies and this very harmful situation can be avoided in the future.
It will not be clear just how much damage Bibi has done to the Likud until we have new elections. We should not under estimate the traditional support that he has enjoyed. Despite the noise of those wishing to displace him, it may be more sensible for the opposition to join the government, even if led by Bibi, in order to sit at the table and have sorely needed discussions in order to bring forward negotiated and agreed reforms.
Wide spread demonstrations feed into the anti Israel brigade who take great pleasure and draw strength at seeing the country tearing itself apart.
The greatest damage done to Israel these past few weeks, was by those demonstrating outside the country wrapped in Israeli flags standing shoulder to shoulder with those chanting “From the river to the sea”. It is best to let Israel be Israel and sort out their own problems. We can see clearly now that Israel is a vibrant Jewish democracy, and is quite capable of resolving her own issues without external interference.