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Americans Shouldn’t Lose Hope in Israeli Democracy
T

he indictment of 
Israeli Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu is 
an understandably confusing 
and emotional moment for 
American Jews. 
Thursday, Nov. 21, was a “dif-
ficult and sad day” for Israelis, 
Attorney General Avichai 
Mandelblit said 
when announc-
ing the indict-
ment. Netanyahu 
is the first sitting 
prime minister 
in Israel’
s history 
to face such a 
predicament. He 
stands charged with bribery, 
breach of trust and fraud in 
multiple cases, the most serious 
one involving an attempt to 
trade positive media coverage 
for regulatory favors.
Netanyahu calls the charges 
“an attempted coup.
” In many 
respects, his defiant stance and 
refusal to step aside also are 
unprecedented. 
The confusion, uncertainty 
and anxiety of Israel’
s ongoing 

political stalemate add to the 
pain and discomfort. Not since 
the assassination of Yitzhak 
Rabin in 1995 has Israel seemed 
so imperiled from within, and 
it is natural for Diaspora Jewry 
to worry when the leader of the 
one and only Jewish state faces 
such grave charges.
Our anguish is also wrapped 
in a unique and bitter disap-
pointment in a figure who 
emerged 40 years ago as a 
living embodiment of a heroic 
Israel. American Jews lionized 
Benjamin Netanyahu, whom 

they first met through the tri-
umph of Entebbe, which came 
with the sting of his brother 
Yoni’
s death. Through the 
1980s, Netanyahu became one 
of the most recognizable Israeli 
figures for American Jewry, 
giving countless interviews and 
speeches that brought goose-
bumps and a wellspring of pride 
to an entire generation.
Although that uniform sense 
of awe and admiration has long 
since faded, and his leadership 
turned divisive, the starkness 
and severity of the attorney gen-

eral’
s indictment will seem like 
a personal betrayal to anyone 
who felt Netanyahu’
s enchant-
ments over the years. Because it 
comes at a time when a variety 
of forces — illiberalism, media 
platforms that undermine trans-
parency and civil discourse, 
increasingly polarized politics 
that fuel nativism and extreme 
nationalism, to name a few — 
also seem to be bearing down 
on Israeli and Western demo-
cratic institutions, there is all 
the more reason to worry.
One bright spot in all of 
this is that Israel’
s legal institu-
tions have been proved resil-
ient, something Israelis and 
American Jews can be proud of. 
More broadly, Israel’
s core dem-
ocratic institutions, although 
stressed, remain strong and 
robust. Democratic and liberal 
norms and practices — be they 
voter turnout, contestation, a 
free press or opposition politics 
— remain healthy. Although 
back-to-back elections have 
led to a political stalemate, 
much of this can be blamed on 

Scott 
Lasensky

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8 | DECEMBER 5 • 2019 

1942 - 2019

Covering and Connecting 
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his residence in Jerusalem. 
Netanyahu called the indictment allegations a “witch hunt.” 

GALI TIBBON / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

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