Surveying the sometimes-apocalyptic rhetoric coming from some Israeli circles about Benjamin Netanyahu’s sixth term as prime minister—especially in response to proposed judicial reforms—Gil Troy offers some words of caution. His warning also applies to those Americans who repeat the same rhetoric:
The anti-Netanyahu assault that began with his November 1 victory has followed the anti-Trump resistance playbook to a T. It began with hysterical cries that a democratically achieved election result threatened democracy. It built, during the transition, with blistering condemnations of the government-in-formation, even before it implemented any policies. It drew clear red lines, which sought to use the sanction of professional guilds and associations, along with social affiliations among the professional class, to create the appearance of unanimity among those who believe their opinions matter more than others. . . . And now, it continues with the mass demonstrations boosted by periodic petitions of 100 self-selected “experts” here and 500 there—economists, business leaders, national security analysts—all predicting catastrophe. The parallels are eerie.
Israelis’ tough neighborhood makes the idea of supercharging an internal us-versus-them debate with cries about the “death of democracy,” “coup d’état,” and imminent “dictatorship”—all while mobilizing the bureaucratic class against the elected government—particularly dangerous. Americans may be able to afford this kind of cosplay politics, where ordinary lawyers and college professors suddenly imagine themselves to be members of the French Resistance or the Underground Railroad, or Luke Skywalker from Star Wars. That’s because America is a very rich, continent-size country, bordered by Mexico to the south and Canada to the north. Israel’s neighbors are different.
Instead, Troy believes it’s worth paying attention to the strengths of Israeli democracy, which, he writes, “is doing just about as well as can be expected.”
Governments often act like speedboats, especially in a volatile parliamentary system like Israel’s. They can veer quickly, as Israel’s just did, from a left-to-right coalition including Arab partners to a right-wing, religiously dominated government. But democratic culture is more like an ocean liner: stable, stately, slow to change, and impressively resilient.
Rather than pointing their fingers, Americans and Israelis would do better to learn from one another. Israelis could benefit from a better appreciation of America’s formal structures of government, while Americans would do well to mimic the bottom-up elements of Israeli democracy, including the trust, solidarity, intimacy, and community that stabilize Israel’s polity.
Read more on Tablet: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/israeli-democracy-is-fine-thanks-for-asking