(Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images) Where does all this fiery passion come from?
The conventional wisdom about Israel is that the deepest passions are on the right, especially the religious right who have a biblical attachment to the land and to Zionism.
But the café society of Tel Aviv? Aren’t their passions more attuned to secular pursuits like cool new restaurants and tech start-ups? What are they doing on Saturday nights marching so passionately with Israeli flags to protest the government’s judicial overhaul?
If you listen to their critics, the demonstrators are really “anarchists” who want to overturn the results of a democratic election. In this view, the elite, secular Ashkenazi left cannot stand to lose the power it has under the current legal system, so it is orchestrating a national temper tantrum to maintain its power and take the government down.
That’s a very neat explanation. The problem is that it’s too neat.
For one thing, it dismisses the sheer breadth and diversity of the estimated 750,000 Israelis who have been marching across the country over the past 14 weeks, turning a stunning sea of blue and white into a “flag revolution” that will likely enter the Zionist history books.
These fervent protestors represent a cross section of Israeli society that goes far beyond Tel Aviv leftists– including a rarely-mentioned group of religious Zionist demonstrators in the West Bank community of Efrat.
What the critics also have overlooked is something seminal that these protests have reaffirmed— Israelis love their country. The ocean of Israeli flags that have dotted the landscape in 2023 speaks to a deep, visceral patriotism that cuts across much of Israeli society.
This patriotic fervor among the opposition is highly inconvenient to diehard supporters of the judicial overhaul. It’s a lot easier to attack fellow citizens when you can impugn their motives as being against the interests of the state.
That’s why the pro-overhaul forces like using the term “democracy.” If they can frame the protests as anarchists undermining democracy, they can grab the high ground.
But that strategy has failed, for two reasons. One, the opposition is very much driven by a genuine love for Israel, which has earned them widespread sympathy. And two, the pro-overhaul forces in the coalition overplayed their hand.
From the very beginning, the overhaul was plagued by overreach. This is not a leftist point of view; it’s a point of fact. There was no attempt to test the waters or even provide a reasonable explanation for why such a fundamental, constitutional overhaul was in the nation’s interest, and not just in the coalition’s interest.
From the very beginning, the overhaul was plagued by overreach. This is not a leftist point of view; it’s a point of fact.
When an argument was made in favor of the legislation, it was usually that the Courts had too much power for too long and it was high time for a correction. But because hardly anyone disputed that contention, the argument was really a subterfuge to hide the fact that the coalition went way too far in gutting the power of the Courts.
Instead of being a noble act in the spirit of democracy, the overhaul was a unilateral power grab. By giving itself the power to neutralize the High Court, the coalition did away with crucial checks and balances that sustain democracies and civil societies. No matter how hard they argued that this was “democracy in action,” the overhaul never passed the smell test.
To make matters worse, the more Israelis rose up to protest, the more the coalition doubled down and accelerated the process. It didn’t matter if the nation was tearing itself apart. What mattered was that the coalition was about to gain unprecedented power, and there was not a minute to waste.
And then, as things came to a head, a hero showed up. It was Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who told the nation that enough is enough. The overhaul was dividing the country and undermining national security. It was time to stop and negotiate.
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to fire Gallant, the streets exploded. The volcano had erupted. There was no choice at that point but to call for a pause.
By then, the rote attacks on demonstrators as power-hungry anarchists rang hollow. If anyone was hungry for power, it was the prime minister and his uncompromising partners whose support he needed to stay in power.
Because it ignored the protests for so long, the coalition is now paying the price. If an election were held today, the latest polls show the coalition losing its majority (a loss of 10 seats) in favor of a centrist coalition led by Benny Gantz. According to a television poll released Friday, 38 percent of respondents said Gantz was better suited to be premier while 31% said Netanyahu. Asked whether Netanyahu should have fired Gallant, 67% said no. Even among supporters of Netanyahu’s right-religious bloc, a majority — 57% — said no.
If an election were held today, the coalition would lose its majority in favor of a centrist coalition led by Benny Gantz.
In other words, now that they’ve seen who they voted for, many of the coalition’s voters have buyer’s remorse. Bibi can read polls. We can be sure he’ll continue to do whatever it takes to stay in power and avoid another election.
His credibility, already damaged by his criminal trial, is slipping. Asked whether they believe Netanyahu is open to true dialogue on judicial reforms, as he has promised, 61% of respondents said they do not believe him. That may explain why 200,000 protestors showed up again on Saturday night—they don’t trust his “pause.”
And why should they? Bibi and his group of hard-nosed ideologues have too much invested in their judicial revolution to let it slip away that easily. They’ve already shown that they’ll tolerate civil turmoil if it means passing legislation that will virtually liberate them from any Court oversight.
A broad coalition of passionate and patriotic Israelis are showing the religious right that Israel also belongs to them—even if many of them prefer to hang out in cafes rather than synagogues.
But now, they know who they’ll have to deal with: A broad coalition of passionate and patriotic Israelis who are showing the religious right that Israel also belongs to them – even if many of them prefer to hang out in cafes rather than synagogues.
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