Netanyahu the ‘Magician’ can’t conjure way out of this

POlITIcIANS rarely like their nicknames, but Benjamin Netanyahu has always revelled in his: the ‘Magician’. For both his supporters and opponents, it’s a term that perfectly describes a man who has spent his career plucking victory from the jaws of defeat like a conjuror pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

But even the Magician has been unable to spirit the country out of the uproar sparked by his proposal to give the government a role in the selection of judges – by far the most toxic domestic crisis faced by Israel since its creation in 1948.

And Netanyahu’s decision yesterday to postpone the proposed legal changes that have caused the outcry for a few months simply drags things out. The seeds of his predicament were sown four months ago when he returned to power as head of a coalition with 64 seats in the 120- seat Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

It was a personal triumph for a man widely written off when he lost power in 2021. But it came at a cost.

He has been facing fraud charges since May 2020 – meaning some of the parties he had been able to do deals would not contemplate making him PM again. This forced him to rely on two far-Right parties, Jewish Strength and Religious Zionism.

The former is led by Itamar BenGvir, an extreme Jewish nationalist with a record of inciting racism against the Arabs who make up 20

per cent of Israel’s population and who advocates the deportation of ‘disloyal’ Palestinian citizens.

The latter is led by Bezalel Smotrich who, when he was accused of whipping up anti-Arab feeling, told Arab Israeli lawmakers in October 2021 that ‘it’s a mistake that BenGurion [Israel’s first prime minister] didn’t finish the job and didn’t throw you out in 1948’.

Last month, he said the Palestinian town of Huwara ‘needs to be wiped out. I think the State of Israel should do it, not, God forbid, private individuals.’ He also proudly describes himself as a ‘ fascist homophobe’, saying the Gay Pride parades for which Israel is renowned are ‘worse than bestiality’.

All of Israel’s woes – and Netanyahu’s – stem from the inclusion of these two men in his coalition. Aware that the supreme court would block many elements of their radical agenda, they demanded judicial reform as the price of joining Netanyahu’s government.

Such a course also suited him, as it promised a means of scuppering his trial. Indeed, the Religious Zionists had said explicitly during the election campaign that they would abolish the crimes of fraud and breach of trust for lawmakers.

As the supreme court became willing to strike down government legislation, many on the Right – including the moderate Right – argued for politicians to be given a role in the selection of judges. One of the most important elements of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul was a bill that changed the make-up of the nine- member committee that selects judges, in order to give the government a majority. Because this was seen in part as a bid by Netanyahu to save his own skin, what could otherwise have been a controversial but second- order issue become the most serious crisis Israel has faced, short of an invasion. Even many of Netanyahu’s supporters fear that Smotrich and Ben-Gvir could be able to reverse laws enshrining female equality and LGBT rights, and that the religious parties would change Israel’s character. They also worry that Ben- Gvir, the national security minister, will provoke anarchy in the West Intense pressure: Mr Netanyahu Bank, where 500,0000 Jewish settlers live alongside three million Palestinians. Until Netanyahu’s climbdown yesterday, Israel was in a full-scale crisis.

AIRPORTS and the seaports of Haifa and Ashdod were closed and the stock market said it would shut today. Perhaps most seriously of all, a general strike was called with hundreds of thousands on the streets. And these were not radical protesters, or an unruly mob of the sort we have seen in Paris.

Quite the opposite. They included – and represented – the core of Israel’s establishment.

Earlier this month, for example, 37 of the 40 reserve pilots in the Israeli air force’s legendary 69th Squadron refused to attend a training exercise, joining the protests instead. In a country surrounded by enemies, the military holds a special place in people’s hearts and the members of the 69th are particularly venerated.

It is telling that what turned the protests into a full-blown crisis was the decision on Saturday of defence minister Yoav Galant to demand a halt to the reforms, saying that the divisions seen on the streets had started to impair the military’s capability, with ever more reservists threatening to refuse to report for duty. Netanyahu’s response was to sack Galant.

Now he has taken the path of least resistance and put off any reforms until the summer. But we will be here again when the plans are reintroduced. Far from dealing with the crisis, Netanyahu has merely prolonged it.