By Diane Francis
Israel captured world headlines in July after launching massive attacks in the occupied West Bank and after Israelis staged mass street protests to stop Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s plans to prohibit Israel’s Supreme Court from restraining or restricting his government. Opposition began slowly in January but has grown into a full-blown political crisis involving constant demonstrations, labor strikes, work stoppages by soldiers and doctors, and objections by the country’s 200 biggest tech companies, 150 major corporations, and President Biden. Even so, on July 24, its parliament passed a partial judicial overhaul, after opponents boycotted the vote, which means that the controversy is far from over. Israel is a country divided into four warring “tribes”: The religious nationalists, ultra-Orthodox Jews, secular Jews, and Arabs. The first two tribes are now in bed with the Prime Minister which “is a risk for the other tribes,” said law professor Yedidia Stern. “Liberal and secular Israelis feel that the balance that we used to have is being shaken.”
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets and highways
The religious agenda includes building more settlements in the West Bank and eventually annexing it despite international objections, imposing their “laws” on all other Israelis, and boosting incomes and privileges for themselves. These have always been their goals, but secular Israelis are now being rapidly outnumbered by the “cradle” as birthrates soar among the religious. Clashes won’t bridge the divide because differences are irreconcilable and present a greater existential threat to the nation than does the threat posed by Israel’s millions of external enemies. Secular Israelis want the country to remain a vibrant economic and technological powerhouse and a liberal and pluralist democracy. Religious nationalists and ultra-orthodox Jews, or Haredim, believe Israel should be a theocracy for the devout. They disdain civil courts for encroaching on their beliefs or threatening their privileges, notably their exemptions from serving in the military or from paying taxes.
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Israel arrives at a turning point because its extremist religious leaders have power politically as well as demographically. They support Netanyahu, a former “liberal”, left-wing politician, and in less than two generations the Haredim population will represent half of Israel’s population as a result of sky-high birth rates. Netanyahu sought their support after he fell out of favor with voters in 2019 following corruption charges. He pulled together a right-wing alliance and was re-elected in November. His priority was to get the Supreme Court off their backs, and his as well, but the coalition now attacks the West Bank and supports limiting the rights of Palestinians, LGBTQ individuals, and secular Israelis.
This is not a political spat, but a crossroad. Each side desires a unique future for the nation-state, its democracy, and the rule of law. Ultra-Orthodox leaders want to control the courts so that the judiciary won’t strike down as unfair their draft exemptions for yeshiva students, tax exemptions, or authority over marriages, education, and other civil law. On the other hand, secular Israelis want to protect the courts because they realize that the religious will replace the judiciary with their rules. Shops will have to close on the Sabbath, women and men will have to sit separately in public spaces, homosexuality and abortion will be outlawed, and a war to annex the West Bank will be inevitable that secular soldiers will be forced to wage.
Netanyahu has always skated to the right. In 2018, he gave the religious special entitlements such as exclusive control over the education of their children and state financial support for their growing “community of learners” (Torah students) who are not only exempt from military service but may refrain from paid work. The result is the creation of a gigantic, unfair, growing, unproductive “leisure” class that is already a burden to the state and will be more so as its members continue to multiply.