Netanyahu: The diaspora demands payback

The consequences for diaspora Jewry should Israel again slip into judicial reform abyss

Foreword:

This article has been held in storage for 4 months waiting for the inevitable moment when the Israeli justice minister revived his “judicial reform” package. For me this is a pivotal moment in our history and I am saddened that I’ve been forced to put my own neck on the line to speak up against this outrage. As any follower of Guerre and Shalom will know, I have been a firm supporter of the State of Israel in its exercise of self-defence against barbaric, genocidal forces; and I have also written many times about the need to defend liberal democracy worldwide. Indeed my principal reason for supporting Israel is not ethno-religious commitment, but the fact that it is a liberal democracy in a sea of illiberal hatred. This being so, the prospect of Israel becoming an elective autocracy is simply unbearable to me and a matter I cannot let past. Moreover, having supported Israel so vigorously, especially since October 7th, it is time that the Israeli governing classes and people take heed of diaspora opinion. The fate of Israel affects us all.

This article is strongly and passionately worded. I have therefore decided to put it behind a paywall on the basis that it should only be viewed by people with the genuine interests of Israel at heart (which one presumes is the case of any of my paid subscribers). That said, if any Israeli readers care to “leak” it to the press and/or other relevant persons, there is absolutely nothing I can do about it…

Please remember that this piece is written in the spirit of wanting the best for liberal democracy in general and wanting the best for liberal democratic Israel in particular.

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“Netanyahu: The diaspora demands payback” by Daniel Clarke-Serret

It was a year of hell. And no, I’m not referring to the near-12 months since October 7^th. I refer to the year of lamentations that proceeded it, when the shameless government of Benjamin Netanyahu nearly brought authoritarianism to the Jewish homeland. The atrocities of Hamas did that which Isaac Herzog, Joe Biden, the Likud non-rebels, the rightist liberals, The British Board of Deputies and many more tried and failed to do. It brought us together. It brought us – however briefly – to our senses. It taught us the basics of good and evil. It reminded us why the State of Israel is so very indispensable; why a Jewish homeland is an undeniable necessity in a world of unremitting antisemitic hostility.

Yet despite the fact that his pre-war Gaza policy failed; though the Qatar-cash-stuffing initiative was Netanyahu’s and Netanyahu’s alone; come the next election the ever-frustrating Israeli electorate will dutifully re-elect him for yet another term. No matter his manifest faults, mendacity and politics of internal sectarian division; no matter his ever-increasing litany of failures; no matter his (alleged) corruption; no matter his brazen attempts to avoid trial at all costs; no matter his evident political weakness in the face of his unspeakable far-right coalition partners, like teflon nothing sticks. Nothing ever sticks. Disillusioned colleague after disillusioned colleague may abandon him in the face of his inevitable unfulfilled promises, yet it is they that pay politically and not him. He lied to Benny Gantz? Oh well. It’s par for the course. But if anybody on the right dares betray the great man, they’ll have hell to pay.

It would, however, be a dishonesty on my own part to blame Netanyahu alone. Or even at all. In a democratic electoral system – especially one as longstanding as that which exists in the State of Israel – it would be wrong to cast the elected individual with the principle stain of guilt. For Netanyahu was not elected by phantoms. Not in the past when election after depressing election was won by the relentless Likud behemoth; nor in the future when they will inevitably triumph at the ballot once again. The responsibility lies squarely with those who dutifully place a Likud voting card in that blue envelope as if it were the new religion. The responsibility lies with the Israeli people.