Israel has long been described as the “democratic” state of our region, and this is why it is the United States and the West’s trusted ally. However, amid the ongoing battle over judicial reform led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite mass opposition, its image is changing.
Today, we can say Israel has succumbed to the rules of the game in the region, becoming a quintessential Middle Eastern state. A third of its electorate votes for religious parties steeped in mysticism, and its prime minister is leading the push to curb the judiciary’s authority and autonomy.
He is doing this in the name of “democracy,” although Netanyahu’s coalition is shaky and was built after a deeply divided Israel voted in several elections. Indeed, the abolition of what is known as the “Reasonableness Doctrine” law lacks genuine majority support.
However, it is not my intention to discuss domestic Israeli demands or how constitutional they are. The point here is that Netanyahu’s Israel is increasingly playing the rules of the region, where power corrupts, and corruption is enshrined into all, all under the veneer of state legitimacy.
By “the region,” I am referring to the countries that have undermined their stability under the pretext that they were working on wiping Israel off the map, as well as with other slogans. Insidiously exploiting democratic slogans, the authorities in these countries have given rise to the state of affairs we see today, which speak for themselves.
Someone might ask: “Are you also referring to the Arab Gulf states?” The answer is no. I am a staunch royalist. I’ve written about the matter for this newspaper. On June 19, 2011, during the “Arab Spring,” I wrote an article entitled: “Monarchy is Better and More Resilient,” arguing that the Gulf states know what they want and do not seek to outbid rivals with hyperbolic slogans.
The Gulf states, first and foremost Saudi Arabia, seek stability and prosperity. They want development in a region plagued by the lies of nationalists, Islamists, those claiming to be democrats, and others exploiting the various slogans that have been bombarding the region since the early 1970s.
And so, the Israeli political crisis indicates that fundamentalist ideology and narrow political interests have led Israel to play by the rules of the game in the region. This approach has come against real opposition and gave rise to protests that were firmly dealt with; indeed, we have even seen incidents when protesters were run over.
All this will engender two significant outcomes. First, it has created real divisions that mirror those across Israel’s borders from all sides. While the degree of division varies in different countries, this region has become a region of deep schisms.
Second, Netanyahu’s attempt to constrain the authority of the judiciary in a state that doesn’t have a written constitution is a powerful blow to Israel’s status as a “democracy,” which the West recognizes Israel to be despite everything it does in the occupied territories.
Today, Washington cannot criticize Ankara, for example, as it watches the action of the fundamentalists in Israel. The claim that Israel is a democratic state in a region fundamentally hostile to democracy has become untenable. Netanyahu’s actions are unjustifiable, and the West cannot both defend them and lecture the region about the importance of judicial independence.
This is indeed a domestic Israeli crisis, but it’s also an extension of the slogans’ collapse in a region that has lost so much to these bogus slogans. As I mentioned earlier, the most significant development is that the “Israeli democracy” card cannot be played in a region that doesn’t respect democracy.
To sum up, Israel has succumbed to the modus operandi of the region, where democracy is distorted, and the fundamentalist card is played to make political gains.
