Originally published at: Israelis march against far-right government's effort to take over courts | Boing Boing
…
5 Likes
I sincerely hope this law gets scrapped.
This could spell the end of the only democracy in the middle East.
6 Likes
It may seem strange for some to hear, but Netanyahu’s coalition is another example of creeping fascism in a liberal democracy. Attempts like this to undermine an independent judiciary are a classic of the genre. In addition, there’s even a uniquely Israeli form of anti-Semitism insofar as some ultra-Orthodox parties of the ruling coalition would gladly except secular Jews from being citizens.
That’s before you get to the genocidal views of the Israeli right toward the Palestinians.
29 Likes
I could ask why the US holds them as an ally. Then I look at us.
16 Likes
Also, never underestimate the effect of inertia. “We do this, because we’ve always done this” is a perennial human idea.
5 Likes
They won’t be an ally as far as many liberal and progressive and even centrist American Jews are concerned if they keep pushing these right-wing policies. The perception that Israel is a liberal democracy (at least for its Jewish citizens) is often the only tenuous reason for their continued support.
As much as Bibi and his pals would wish otherwise, U.S. support for Israel isn’t only the domain of AIPAC and conservative American Jews (and Xtianist “Zionists”).
14 Likes
5 Likes
Um, I think you dropped your quotation marks. Or was it your /s tag?
18 Likes
When Israeli politics manage to lose Michael Bloomberg you know they’re adrift and heading into dangerous waters. Today in the NYT he makes a convincing case for anyone not already very worried. (one could try ‘reader view’ if pay-walled)
6 Likes
The top brass of the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Air Force have reasons of their own to be concerned. Their worries are two-fold – first, that the protests may begin undermining the IAF’s operational capabilities, and second – and even more importantly – it may harm the armed forces’ social cohesion. For a long time, the army has sought (as much as possible) to keep Israel’s wrenching political and constitutional crisis at arm’s length. It can now be said with confidence that this effort has failed.
There’s a real shitshow on the horizon. From 6 days ago:
8 Likes
I seriously do not want to wade into those waters. I know I can’t see how deep it is and how strong the undercurrents are.
The thing is, I was born and raised in Germany. I was and am quite critical of the state of democracy there. I am maybe the person in this topic who should just STFU about the problems in Israel.
But I am also very, very unsettled. A government where “Bibi” is the voice of reason and the least radical right-winger is fucking frightening. So, no, there is no sarcasm tag. I still believe Israel is a democracy, but not one without its own problems. Which just became much more obvious and dangerous recently.
FTR, Anglo-Saxons with their history of basically two-party rule have a plethora of problems themselves, and in my book also do not qualify as full democracies. But I also don’t want to derail.
To end on a positive note: I am very, very glad that people of Israel are protesting that dangerous bullshit, this attack on the rule of law.
took me ages to write this. Please complain to SARS-CoV-2 for factual errors, spelling mistakes and grammar shit.
8 Likes
I don’t know the exact figures in the corruption case, but impression was that it was fairly petty stuff. Which could make this one of those historical events where something big, irrevocably destroying the future of a nation, happens because of something ridiculously small, i.e. Bibi getting off the hook for accepting some fancy furniture or whatever.
1 Like
The corruption case is a side show. He’s always been in favor of greater Israel and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
11 Likes
IIRC, the greater worry was over Aryeh Deri
Netanyahu fires key coalition ally after disqualification by high court-- Washington Post
The dismissal is seen as a potential threat to the stability of the Netanyahu administration because Aryeh Deri, the fired health and interior minister, is head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which is part of the far-right coalition that enabled Netanyahu to form a government. Deri was convicted of tax fraud last year. While claiming that he had been targeted because of his Moroccan heritage, he signed a plea deal and received a suspended sentence after vowing that he would not seek to serve in government.
5 Likes
Yeah, exactly. All Israeli citizens can vote. However, those who have Palestinian nationality, and not Israeli citizenship, can’t vote in Israeli elections, and I think that’s a few million people living in the West Bank and Gaza. They can vote in Palestinian Authority elections but the Palestinian Authority’s sovereignty isn’t recognized by Israel or almost anyone else, so it’s voting for a government that isn’t sovereign. I guess that’s like in high school you can vote for the class president, but the class president doesn’t preside over anything, so it doesn’t count for much.
Israeli Arabs have full acceptance in Israel and have every opportunity for voting, education, military service, etc, but the millions of Palestinians who don’t have citizenship, they don’t get any of that. Israel does not give these non-citizens any pathway to citizenship ever. It has a complicated system of ID cards which allow some of them some travel / work options in Israel but these are all temporary and easily revoked. Meanwhile instead of offering jobs to the Palestinians who would like them, Israel brings in low-skilled temporary workers from Thailand Philippines etc to work on farms.
Israeli Arabs do suffer some discrimination, but then again, everyone in Israel discriminates against everyone else who is different.
And why is that acceptable?
7 Likes
Citation needed.
You’re contradicting yourself.
That makes it all right?
4 Likes
But hey… that’s just how things are, we just have to accept that and move on! After all, humanity has not changed one bit in thousands of years… /s
6 Likes
I didn’t say that. It’s just… that’s a problem that’s not unique to anyone there. Secular Jews don’t like to live with Ultra Orthodox and vice versa and Ashkenazi and Sephardic and on and on… plus the situation with the treatment of Ethiopian Jews, which I think even have a worse situation than Israeli Arabs, and Russian Jews being racist and on and on. It would take a million pages to describe it all.
There are Israeli Arab generals in the IDF. There has never been an Ethiopian Jew at that level. They aren’t blocked from anything, although the different communities there do live separately. What we would call “housing discrimination” is universal and accepted there.
You absolutely excused it. Imagine saying that in the US in 1960, discussing discrimination faced by Black Americans, or into the 90s with regards to South Africa. You’re completely downplaying and naturalizing the structures the current Israeli state props up for its own ends. This isn’t “people” doing shit, it’s a violent state policy that is keeping this going. The Israeli government had options, and at one point, was actually working towards a goal of ensuring a safer country by helping the Palestinians form their own state. But since the rise of Netanyahu, who has always opposed the two state solution, it has become impossible. This is not due to individual prejudices, but to state policies aimed at ensuring an apartheid state. 
Ghassan Alian is a Druze…
You’re conflating different ethnic groups into a single one. That’s quite disingenuous of you.
Just like in America after the end of reconstruction! They just decided it was better that way! /s
6 Likes
