Dr. Mordechai Nisanis a retired lecturer in Middle East Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Among his books is The Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr (Abu-Arz). His most recent books are Only Israel West of the River: The Jewish State and the Palestinian Question, available at Amazon.com. HIslatest book is The Crack-up of the Israeli Left (Mantua Books, 2019).
We need straight stark talk today.
Iniquity and folly have been the major engines for many leftist actions in Israel. In the present insurgency against the democratically elected government, jealousy, hatred, delusion, and stupidity, have fused to fan the flames of harassment and disruption, lies and violence, by the hooligans fomenting the chaos in the streets of Israel.
The issue of judicial reform, a formidable malady and a pretext for a broader revolt, lingered in abeyance for many years. Exuding arrogance, some justices on the Supreme Court believed in their own pompous status as uniquely qualified adjudicators of policy and morality. Disdainful of the common people, dismissive of ministers, and deluded by their alleged mastery of the law, judges chased after honor and compromised their dignity. Humility, it appears, is not one of their strong points.
The judicial system and law enforcement agencies are flawed – the police, the prosecution, the Attorney General, the courts. The list of cases of the abuse of power is scandalous. Our times, as during biblical times, attest to the lack of integrity among people with authority in their hands. Israel yearns for justice, righteousness, and compassion.
The Right charges the Left with hegemonic and sweeping domination of the various sectors of society: the media, academia, the arts, the economy, banking and commerce, the army. Proof of the accusation is visible and compelling today, as the elites indeed lead the campaign against the Netanyahu government's reform policy. They respond with strikes and vilification.
The elites, bad-mouthing Israel among the nations, privileged and entrenched, rise up in rebellion against the state and the army, promoting civil war, and taking steps to bring the government to its knees - and the country to a standstill. The next step is the ultimate collapse of Israel – through internal unraveling or external assault, or both. The loony left is pushing the country to the abyss.
A stroke of extra-terrestrial insanity, for lack of any other explanation, is knocking at the door of the third Jewish commonwealth. Even doctors, responsible for the health of people, are victims of the insanity. Pilots, suffering political vertigo while yet on the tarmac, say they will refuse to fly against the enemy. The inversion of truth has produced such vile comparisons between 1933 and 2023, Hitler and Netanyahu, and hallucinating dictatorship when Israel is a solid liberal and democratic state.
We watch in disbelief. We witness the awesome, perhaps lethal, disproportional response – anarchy - to a single judicial reform. The legislation passed on July 24, changing the 'reasonableness standard' to limit the arbitrary interference of judges in government and Knesset decisions, provided a pretext for escalating the street explosion into a deafening fury of frenzy throughout the country. The Balfour protests against Prime Minister Netanyahu that began in 2022, it is now evident, were a mere aperitif before the main course at Kaplan Street and the Ayalon highway in 2023.
Blessed are those Israelis whose common sense and love of country remain resolute in these days of fire and upheaval. Cursed are those Israelis, suffering from extra-terrestrial insanity and that quintessentially Jewish disease of self-hatred, who have joined the anti-Semites, Israel-bashers, and pro-BDS agitators around the world.
Shame, shame, shame!