The pressure on the streets of Israel has increased as the judicial reform bills progress in the Israeli Parliament and when several of its most controversial aspects are due to be approved in final reading this week. On Saturday night, the reform marches against Benjamin Netanyahu's government reached their peak: around half a million participants, half of them in Tel Aviv.
The data belongs to the convening civil society organizations, since for weeks the police have not provided estimates on the number of participants in these protests that allow for contrasting the data offered by the organizers, and which are generally validated by the Israeli media. Thus, today there was talk of "the largest protest in the history of Israel."
In this environment, Beniamín Netanyahu adds a new setback, the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, precisely when the prime minister took the normalization of relations between Israel and the Saudi kingdom for granted. The news of the agreement reached in Beijing between Arabs and Persians caught Netanyahu in Rome, more to celebrate a wedding anniversary with his wife than a diplomatic visit, according to the press. Upon his return, on Friday, there was a large demonstration against him. Among those protesting, it must be remembered, are many elite Air Force pilots.
Despite all this, Israeli missiles hit Masiaf, in the Syrian province of Hama, yesterday morning, injuring three Syrian soldiers, according to official sources in Damascus, who said they had shot down several of the missiles. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights noted that the Israeli target was an arms depot of a pro-Iranian militia, presumably the Lebanese Hizbollah. Meanwhile, in Nablus (the West Bank), a shootout between Israeli soldiers and militiamen from the group called The Lions' Den, ended with three Palestinians being killed when they opened fire on a military checkpoint. The new deaths bring to 81 the number of Palestinians who have lost their lives in the area in violent incidents with Israel so far this year, including fifteen minors.
