State prosecutors have filed charges against Yaakov Itach, a person who has threatened to murder Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara. "A new era of Kahanism has begun – soon you will tremble before leaving your house," he informed her through social media. Itach is not the visionary of the new Kahanist state, only a small cog in the Bibi-ist and Kahanist machine.
Even before the Military Advocate General affair, the Bibi-ist-Kahanist right- wing camp marked the country's watchdogs as targets. The gatekeepers are not the only ones in their crosshairs. The poison machine has also marked Hadas Klein, a witness in Netanyahu's trial, and journalist Guy Peleg. Klein is facing the legal arm of Netanyahu's lawyer, Amit Hadad, who is exploiting the courtroom for disseminating slander against her while trampling a court ruling stating that any discussion of Klein be held behind closed doors.
The agents of incitement on the street and on social media take it up from there. Peleg is facing threats on the street and on social media, issued by right-wing activists and extremist organizations, as well as the cabinet members embracing them.
In a recent op-ed in Haaretz, Klein described three years of slander and threats against her, starting after she testified against Netanyahu. A chronicle of a citizen fulfilling her duty transformed into an enemy of the people, while the judges remain silent, signaling that everything is permissible. Peleg is also under assault. His publication of the video showing horrific abuse of a Palestinian detainee by soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention facility, a basic journalistic action, is described by the right as a betrayal of the soldiers. Ministers Yariv Levin and Itamar Ben-Gvir are embracing Mordechai David, who assaulted Peleg and blocked his car. Violence is being framed as "legitimate protest," as if these were citizens protesting people in power and not an assault against a journalist.
The ideological-messianic arm has also mobilized, with organizations such as Torat Lechima (Combat Doctrine) and placards replicating the patterns of incitement that preceded the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. The police are "investigating" but are taking almost no action. The epidemic of people showing total indifference to these events is spreading. A bar in Haifa cancelled a lecture by Peleg due to "the noise" surrounding the journalist. This way, you don't need a law for muzzling journalists. All you need is people who are afraid of getting implicated.
The overall picture is clear: Netanyahu is the supreme commander of the poison machine operated by the Bibi-ist-Kahanist camp; Hadad is turning the courtroom into a platform for incitement; Levin, Ben-Gvir and MK Gotliv are giving assailants legitimacy; activists are operating while social media disseminate the poison. Online violence has overflowed into the streets, all under the auspices of the government. The police respond belatedly, if at all. State prosecutors deal with foot soldiers on the ground in the best case, while judges keep silent and the public grows increasingly indifferent. The situation is grave. The lives of people falling victim to such incitement are in danger.
Klein and Peleg's personal safety is not a private issue. If there is no independent judiciary and free media here, democracy will wither. A new era has indeed begun. The question now is whether law enforcement authorities, on one hand, and the democracy-espousing public on the other hand submissively accept the era of Bibi-ist and Kahanist militias, or whether they stand up to them.
The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.