[Discussion] Israel in Crisis

Well, it looks like the pot has finally boiled over in Israel. Yesterday, PM Netanyahu fired DM Gallant after he called for slow-rolling Netanyahu's changes to the judicial system, which themselves have caused months of continuous demonstrations and outrage. Soon after, citizens took to the streets and marched on the Knesset and the Supreme Court. President Herzog, former PMs Yair Lapid and Ehud Barak, and many others have called on Netanyahu to stop his attempted changes. The current Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who has been an outspoken, strong supporter of the changes, has said he will go along with any decision Netanyahu makes in this regard, while noting that "if everyone does what he feels like" the situation may lead to the destruction of Likud and the government itself.

Histadrut, the largest coalition of unions in the country, has called a general strike in opposition to Netanyahu and Likud's plans, which has since cascaded down to shutting outgoing flights from Ben Gurion Airport (since restarted), and closure of many functions at the Port of Haifa, the largest in the country. All the McDonalds have shut down, and the largest owner of malls has ordered their shutdown, again both in opposition to Likud. 24 mayors have announced a hunger strike starting today. Even the Israeli Embassy in Washington has closed in support of Histadrut's call for a general strike. Nurses, bank employees, the stock exchange, railways, universities, museums and more are shutting down today or Tuesday.

In a nutshell, Netanyahu has been evading criminal charges of various types for years, and after his career seemingly imploded several years and five elections ago, he was brought back to be the PM in late Dec 2022 by an extreme Right-wing coalition. Since then, he has attempted to trade favors to the extremists (my opinion there) in order to restructure the government (through changes to the laws; there is no written Constitution) in such a way that the Prime Minister would not only be immune to prosecution, but would have control over the Supreme Court, whose oversight duties over the PM and the Knesset would be greatly reduced. The first tranche of changes were passed by the Knesset last week. There would also be massive changes for citizen Arabs and Palestinians, downgrading them to below the rights of Jewish Israelis, while the Settlement movement would be expanded and more strongly supported. Previously, much of the Army leadership, ex-Mossad leaders and other security services have come down against the changes, with (IIRC) Shin Bet and some of the police forces supporting them.

This is the worst crisis in Israel's history. If Netanyahu persists - and while he has not spoken yet, he has such a troubled history that his Trumpian bulldog nature may lead him to continue this folly - the government and Likud will likely collapse, and the country might possibly see a period of at least civil unrest, with unpredictable results.

(My opinion here.)
Here's hoping he sees sense and won't destroy the State of Israel for his own corrupt benefit. Enough is enough. No one should be above the law, and Israel should retain what is left of its multi-cultural democracy and indeed strengthen it. This is a terrible time but it can still walk back from the brink. The next few days should show the direction it will move.

CNN's "Analysis" page has a lot of good background info to allow folks to get up to speed.