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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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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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