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"We are a people as all other peoples; we do not have any intentions to be better than the rest. As one of the first conditions for equality we demand the right to have our own villains, exactly as other people have them.”
Those words, written by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the father of the Likud movement, in 1911, seem prescient today. His personal secretary was one Benzion Netanyahu; fast forward more than a century, and with his son at the helm of both the party and the country, Israel certainly has its villains. Some now serve in the cabinet, a symptom of the country’s proportional representation which favours the eccentric kingmaker and fosters political instability. Britons tempted by the system should take heed.
That is far from the only problem thrown up by the Israeli political structure. The country’s reliance upon a single parliamentary chamber has fed the growth of a powerful supreme court, now able to strike down laws because it finds them “unreasonable”, with no constitution to underpin rulings. The judges can appoint themselves, leading to a dominance of an Ashkenazi, liberal elite in a country where half the population is Sephardi and tends to the right.
In recent months, as Israel’s ill-conceived political apparatus went from an arcane topic to one of huge popular concern, bringing tens of thousands onto the streets, British Jews could not help but recall the Brexit wars. That tempestuous period also involved mass rallies; conflict between the masses and the elites; divisions in families over complex and often abstract problems; fears for the end of democracy; and a stand-off between the legislature and the judiciary, with one paper memorably labelling judges “enemies of the people”. You almost expected Netanyahu to declare his intention to “get Brexit done”.
We also recalled Liz Truss’s ill-fated premiership. Even those with some sympathy for her politics held their heads in their hands over the way she botched them in the application. Similarly, as a beleaguered Bibi battles to hold power, his customary fingerspitzengefühl seems to have deserted him. The current proposals feel rushed, tip the balance of power too far in the other direction and have provoked howls of outrage both from predictable quarters and across the mainstream. The timing also works against him: it is hard to take on the judiciary when you not only face a corruption case yourself but are joined at the hip to chauvinists and ideologues serving their own agendas.
Some of the protesters have rallied against Netanyahu before and will rally against him again. From one perspective, they are the ones seeking to overturn democracy: due partly to a failure of the left to organise, Bibi won, and the winning party gets to implement its agenda. But with their numbers swelling weekly, this is much more to this than a movement of sore losers. There are real concerns that a newly empowered Knesset, commandeered by extremists, would force through legislation that curtails the rights of gay people and women and entrenches theocratic principles in public life. The shameful rampage in Huwara, which led to the murder of a Palestinian who had just returned from humanitarian work in Turkey, only worsened these fears. Netanyahu’s dismissal of them in his speech in Germany did little to reassure those on the streets.
The JC is aware of how easy it is to pass judgment on Israel from armchairs in Britain. After 5,000 terror attacks last year and a crime wave sweeping Arab areas, some Israelis were energised by the security fetishist Ben Gvir’s populist stance. British Jews are not Israeli and until we make aliyah, we voice our criticism tentatively. But Jewish values are Jewish values and they do not include bullying, collective punishment, violence and murder.
For weeks, the JC has sought to avoid stoking the flames of division. There has been more than enough of that. Last week, a German paper compared Netanyahu to Assad, Khomeini and Putin, even referring to the Israeli leader as a “Führer”. Closer to home, one Jewish pundit has likened Israeli ministers to the Taliban and the Ayatollahs in the pages of a national newspaper. Now is not the time for hyperbole or political opportunism. In our small and precious Anglo-Jewish community, preserving achdut is vital. Despite our differences, we must avoid a Brexit-Remain style rift. The alternative is misery and bitterness for years to come.
This moment is a watershed in diaspora relations. Ties with Israel, where the political right has long been in ascendance, have been fraying for years as young people turn leftwards, fall under the influence of the radical social justice movement and lose touch with what it means to face hostile foes. There is a spectrum of views in the community, from the drive to raise placards in parliament square to an instinct — more common among older generations and the orthodox — to refrain from shouting about our problems outside the family. Some feel you should make aliyah or keep schtum. All these perspectives are valid. But as some begin to silence themselves for fear of reprisals, we must dial down the hysteria.
Now is the time to take a stand against damaging political power-grabs; but it is also the time to stand up for Israel. To use this complex matter to fuel tribalism is to do an injustice to the community. We must come together. Seventy-five years ago, the Altalena cargo ship, carrying arms and fighters to assist in the struggle for the State of Israel, was sunk by fellow Jews off the coast of Netanya, a result of internecine rivalry that claimed 19 lives. Ugliness always lurks. That is why we call for the Jewish community to reject extremists from all quarters and see the best in each other. To borrow from Abraham Lincoln, if the House of Israel is divided against itself, it cannot stand.
All of this points to one outcome. Tempering the judicial reforms to make them palatable to both sides — requiring a supermajority for both legislature and judiciary when at loggerheads, for example — is the only solution. Last week, President Herzog put forward such a plan. This week, Joe Biden added his voice to calls for judicial compromise. The devil is in the detail, but it is the only way.
It has been gratifying that during this tumultuous period, both Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer have pledged their support for Israel through thick and thin. Trade secretary Kemi Badenoch reinforced it in an interview with our correspondent in Tel Aviv earlier this month. Britain survived Brexit and Truss with democracy intact. Israel will survive this. Anglo-Jewry must continue to hold the country close, despite the chaos and heartbreak. And we must never forget that most poignant slogan from the Brexit wars: we have more in common than that which divides us.