For months, Israelis put aside their deep differences to fight a common enemy. Now, amid renewed government pressure on the government, they are fighting each other.
A year and a half ago, after Hamas attacked Israel, Israelis put their internal conflicts on hold to form a united military front against a common external threat.
Now that veneer of common cause has been cast aside. Beyond its borders, Israel has resumed fighting on four fronts – in Gaza, Lebanon, the occupied West Bank, and Yemen. And at home, Israeli citizens have returned to bitter internal strife that is once again raising existential questions about the fate of their country. future.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition has resumed its controversial efforts, frozen since the 2023 attack, to expand its control over other branches of government. The moves sparked widespread protests after the government sought to fire the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence service and the attorney general — two powerful watchdogs who oversee investigations into both Mr. Netanyahu and his aides.
This week, parliament will vote on a government plan to give itself greater control over the selection of Supreme Court judges, an institution that has long thwarted the ambitions of Mr Netanyahu's ultra-nationalist and religious-conservative allies.
“The foundations of the state are shaking,” former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview. “In Israel, Netanyahu is ready to sacrifice everything for his survival, and we are closer to civil war than people realize. In Gaza, we have returned to fighting — and for what? And abroad, I have never seen such hatred, such opposition to the state of Israel.”
For Mr. Netanyahu and his supporters, the moves are a legitimate attempt to rein in unelected bureaucrats and judicial officials who have stymied the will of the elected government. “The leftist Deep State is weaponizing the justice system to prevent the will of the people from being carried out,” Mr. Netanyahu wrote on social media last week.
