Netanyahu's Coalition Advances a Nightmare Vision of the State of Israel - Haaretz Editorial - Haaretz.com
The governing coalition launched another legislative blitz Wednesday aimed at advancing the regime coup. The Knesset approved, in the first of four votes, a series of bills that, if passed, are liable to affect all Israelis in the near future.
The easing of the Haredi parties' boycott of the coalition – after they agreed to the latest version of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and MK Boaz Bismuth's draft evasion law – allowed this legislation to advance. These bills are being passed on the backs of everyone who serves in the military.
Among the bills the coalition is advancing, some of which have already passed the first of four votes, are ones to: revoke retirement benefits from retired officers over political remarks ("the Yair Golan Law"); increase religious observance in the public sphere ("the Realization of Jewish Identity in the Public Sphere Bill"); ease the criteria for board members of government companies (abolishing the ban on politically affiliated appointees) and reduce the powers of the president of the Supreme Court (stripping them of the authority to determine which justices will hear a case before the High Court of Justice).
Even if some of these bills, assuming they are passed, are overturned by the High Court, and even if some are meant to provoke anger and to distract the public, the government's vision is clear: It wants a corrupt, backward state, less free and more tyrannical, based on Jewish religious law and on patronage. A state where citizens are punished for expressing their opinions and the justice system protects not the citizens but those who are close to the government. This is the state that Netanyahu and his coalition partners envision, and they are using all their power to realize it.
The October 2023 Hamas attack exposed deep decay in nearly all state institutions. After two years of war, Israel needs thorough treatment and recovery. The coalition could allocate resources to rehabilitation and healing, but it has no interest in doing so.
Right-wing protesters outside Jerusalem's Supreme Court in June.Credit: Itai Ron
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This legislation fails to address any of Israel's most urgent problems. The government is not acting to revitalize the battered north, renovate the war-damaged Soroka Medical Center and Weizmann Institute of Science, aid the wounded and those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, help the freed hostages or rebuild the Western Negev. The laws the coalition is advancing are meant not to rehabilitate the country or serve its citizens, but only to deepen its rule and ensure that the state reflects it: more religious, more corrupt, less democratic.
If the coalition parties win the next election, this is Israel's future. As the election approaches, the Likud party and its partners will try to divert the discourse to topics such as the Palestinian Authority, the inclusion of Arabs in the government and the air force pilots' "refusal" on the eve of the war. They will tell voters that the election is a referendum on a Palestinian state. That will be a lie. The next election will be a referendum on the Israeli state.
The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.