There are those who are filled with joy at the Labor party's demise and the humiliation of Hatnuah party chief Tzipi Livni. I am not one of those people. The disintegration of the Labor party marks the disintegration of the entire Israeli political system, and that is the gravest threat to democracy in this country.
Although there are historical reasons for the consistent decline in the party's power, they are not the reason Labor is projected to make a single-digit showing in the April 9 election. The media, and Haaretz in particular, are responsible for Labor's collapse. The left-wing newspaper's treatment of Labor's now-deposed leader and current Jewish Agency head Isaac Herzog was tantamount to character assassination. It is worth bearing in mind that the Zionist Union, may it rest in peace, still has 24 lawmakers in the Knesset thanks to Herzog and Livni.
Immediately after the 2015 elections, Herzog's leadership came under attack. A piece that ran in Haaretz asserted that "Herzog, just like [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, knows that the Zionist Union leadership is not viable as long as it is based on this supposedly level-headed and responsible leader. … Its viability lies in the personalities now sitting on the sidelines: … Avi Gabbay, former IDF Chiefs of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Benny Gantz." Channel 10 reporter Raviv Drucker consistently attacked Herzog, writing in May 2016 that Herzog had become politically useless and that thanks to Herzog, Netanyahu was able to "bring the entire center-left camp to its knees."
These efforts by the media convinced Labor party voters to rid themselves of Herzog as quickly as possible and crown a new king who had been warming up on the sidelines: Avi Gabbay. This move was followed by a lengthy campaign that demanded Gabbay make way for the great white hope: former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Or Gantz. Or Joe Shmoe for that matter. One thing is for certain: The establishment Left is controlled not by its voters but by external factors.
Should the justice system, God forbid, succeed in taking down Netanyahu, the political system in its entirety will have turned into a playing field, if not a junkyard. The establishment will determine policies in every field. The justice system will continue its transformation into a quasi-legislative branch. We witnessed this in Supreme Court Justice Uzi Vogelman's decision to overturn a lower court's ruling to deport BDS supporter Lara Alqasem. In Israel, there is no rule of law but the rule of Vogelman and State Attorney Shai Nitzan.
The defense establishment will determine Israel's defense policies. The heads of the IDF and the intelligence services have the means to impose their will on the prime minister. Netanyahu is basically the only prime minister since David Ben-Gurion to succeed in steering Israel's foreign and security policy in a different direction from the one being promoted by the defense establishment. Regulators, like those tasked with antitrust and the capital market, and the Bank of Israel will determine our economic policies.
The Likud party, with Netanyahu at its head, is the sole survivor of the elected and functioning political system. It is the last anchor for the expression of the will of the people. Recent developments on the religious Right do not bode well. Just as the media and various institutions now control the Left, it appears they are also about to take over a significant portion of the Right. The fact that Gabbay came out of nowhere to take over a party like Labor, and Gantz, whose military record is one of failure, is now deemed a messiah, should be a warning sign that Israeli democracy is in danger.
