On Sunday, we saw what Israeli politics is like at the end of the second decade of the 21st century. In the space of two weeks, two major public events took place in the courts, with political leaders in starring roles. The fateful political struggles can barely be contained within the halls of Jewish sovereignty, the Knesset, and are spilling over to the Supreme Court, and as of Sunday, into the Jerusalem District Court.
The politicians, the lawyers, the journalists, and the furious masses are all involved. Some offer comfort by saying there is an arena outside the court and there is the legal arena as it exists in the courtroom, where there are rules and laws and which is detached from the masses outside waving black flags or supporting the prime minister, whose fate is in the hands of the judges.
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Clearly, there is no detachment. This is not democracy in action, it is democracy that is being shredded. The moment that political life falls into hands that don't know how to make compromises and only know rulings, the public's frustration and outrage bubbles over. Journalists and broadcasters are making the same low-blow mistake of accusing the public of violence that could target the judges, and this is a repeat of what happened during the disengagement from Gaza. Then, too, the big newspapers and TV channels joined hands with certain elements in the security forces, and invented stories about settlers in Kfar Darom and Homesh, saying they had weapons and were prepared to use them, and that the personnel carrying out the evacuations would not hesitate to "neutralize" them. All this came after a solid year of a violent campaign against the settlers in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, a campaign that ended with a painful uprooting.
The same thing is happening with Prime Minister Netanyahu. For 25 years, a campaign of character assassination has been waged against him, the like of which has never been seen in any democracy, and that campaign has turned especially brutal in the last four years. It isn't one particular speech or another, but rather daily and weekly leaks designed to shape public opinion and awaken hatred until it boils over.
This isn't about the public's right to know, but rather the technique that is being exposed in the US right now after the (not final) exoneration of Gen. Michael Flynn. In the US there are checks and balances, and in the end, there is oversight and transparency and it is possible to follow how the leaders of the Obama administration, along with the FBI and the famous columnists, stitched up a respected general and ruined his life, to the point where he admitted to acts he didn't commit.
So now Netanyahu is in a position to return fire. Anyone who didn't want to listen to his speech at the entrance to the court on Sunday shouldn't have started staging this production in the first place. Right now, the only way out of this political-legal tangle is for the prime minister to show faith in the judges and do his best, along with his lawyers, to prove that the accusations against him do not comprise criminal acts.
