Benjamin Netanyahu is prepared to undermine the independence of the judiciary to keep his government together – even if divisions in Israel deepen
When the Knesset curtailed the power of Israel’s supreme court this week, it was a pivotal moment in the country’s history. Should the law be enacted, and survive legal challenge, it will undermine the independence of the nation’s judiciary and its role as the guarantor of its liberal-democratic values. But this is the price that Benjamin Netanyahu is prepared to pay to keep his government together – even if divisions in Israel deepen.
Mr Netanyahu leads the most ultranationalist and religiously conservative government since the country was founded. His politics are those of division. Those on the streets, threatening strikes, or in the army refusing to serve, are the enemies he wants to have. He casts them as liberal Israelis who want to retain the status quo that the country’s more nationalist and religious citizens want to smash. Israel’s social contract has already been broken in part by rising inequality: a fifth of Israelis live below the national poverty line, but so do almost half of the ultra-Orthodox – and a third of Arab Israelis.
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