From Politico Nightly:
AWKWARD ALLIES — The dust is settling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid to block Israel’s Supreme Court from overturning government decisions. But the move has left him facing more scrutiny, not less, as even long-standing supporters in the U.S. voice fears the country is on an increasingly authoritarian track.
After the controversial new law was passed by the Knesset by a vote of 64 to 0 late on Monday night, with opposition politicians walking out of the chamber, on the streets outside the building a battle over the future of the country was only just beginning. Huge crowds of Israelis turned out to demonstrate in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and major foreign allies are now weighing in.
While the full implications of the decision to defy the White House on the bill and go ahead anyway are only just becoming clear, Israeli civil society and Jewish diaspora groups are already seething. The American Jewish Committee, a stalwart advocate for Israel in Washington, has expressed “profound disappointment” over the decision, arguing that “reform to the institutions core to Israeli democracy should only be adopted on the basis of the broadest possible consensus.”
A perceived weakening of the rule of law in one of the Middle East’s only democracies also has investors worried. The directors of high tech companies, a critical sector for the tiny nation’s economy, placed black page advertisements on the front of Israeli newspapers this morning to underline their fears the government is becoming more and more unaccountable. The Tel Aviv stock market has also taken a beating today as traders reacted to the news.
“It’s hugely symbolic because the courts are seen as one of the last institutions left over from an older Israel,” Seth Franzman, a regional analyst and editor at The Jerusalem Post tells POLITICO.
“That was a very different Israel to the one the protesters think we are moving towards, which would have a lot more of the authoritarianism we see in Hungary or Turkey or Poland.”
Protests are now set to continue throughout the week, and several legal petitions have been filed to overturn the law, creating one of the most serious rifts in the three quarters of a century since the establishment of the state of Israel.
Its 73-year-old veteran prime minister, however, is one of politics’ great survivors, defying corruption scandals and election defeats over a decade and a half in office. If he can weather the storm at home, there’s little even concerned allies abroad can do to hold him to account, says Franzman.
“Netanyahu is a known quantity and Israel is an important partner in a time when its adversaries like Russia, China and Iran are going wild. A democratic slippage won’t change that — the West has the partners it has, and there aren’t a lot of alternatives.”
At home, Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and ultra-religious parties gives him a tight grip on power. Abroad, the U.S. can air its concerns but ultimately he knows he’ll always be welcome alongside Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hungary’s Viktor Orban in the club of awkward allies Washington might not like, but knows it needs. |
