“I informed my unit that I will no longer be a reservist. The red line has been crossed: if the judicial reform advances, the country will lose its way and I will no longer defend it,” said Yuval Horowitz, who was a doctor during the outbreak of the Second Intifada. For Oren, who also announced that "I will not be a reservist in a dictatorial country with a single authority", now it is about "our own war, the most difficult that Israel faces, because the enemy is from home. It is the most complex conflict since our independence”.
Only two months after resuming power, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing an unprecedented internal crisis. Hundreds of soldiers in the reserve, including elite units such as the air force or intelligence –keys to winning wars– are encouraging insubordination. The integrity of the Israel Defense Forces, the sacred and homogenizing institution of the Jewish state, is in question.
Security and the economy, pillars that crowned Bibi as the leader with the longest running of the country -accumulates fifteen- are crumbling. His return coincided with a surge in Palestinian terror attacks and massive military raids on West Bank cities, which in their mission to neutralize armed militants also culminate in the deaths of innocent civilians. So far this year, 66 Palestinians and 14 Israelis have been killed, and the fear is that the imminent start of Ramadan will culminate in a massive explosion.
The judicial reform launched by the government, which will allow the executive branch to control the selection of judges or to ignore the Supreme Court's rulings with parliamentary majorities, is already weighing down the “Israeli economic miracle”. The powerful sheqel is devaluing against the dollar and foreign funds have already withdrawn investments in the country. Bankers and economists warn that without separation of powers or control mechanisms –Israel lacks a constitution or a Senate– the Start-up Nation will stop flourishing.
The noise bombs, tear gas or water cannons used by military police to repress Palestinians were deployed last week in the heart of Tel Aviv. In the so-called “national disruption” day, the agents responded to the appeal of the Minister of National Security, the ultra Itamar Ben Gvir, who called for forcefulness against the “anarchists” who blocked roads and train tracks throughout the territory.
After eight weeks of mobilizations, the reservists, hi-tech workers, doctors or mobilized students demanded to raise the bar of the resistance, given Bibi's unwillingness to stop her controversial plan. "Why weren't you in Hawara?" the masses exclaimed to the police, who applied unprecedented aggressiveness.
The concentrates referred to a Palestinian village near Nablus, where hundreds of settlers carried out a pogrom with impunity, despite the fact that the army knew of their vengeful plans. Hours after a Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli brothers, mobs of Jewish radicals torched dozens of homes, vehicles and businesses. They killed one local, and wounded at least a hundred. The Israeli army did make an appearance this Friday, when it confronted and blocked hundreds of Jewish activists in a solidarity march towards the charred town, whose shops are still closed by military order.
Since the inclusion of the Jewish ultra-right in the coalition, which enjoys broad authority in the security apparatus or to expand and legalize settlements in the West Bank, settler attacks have doubled. Comments such as that of Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, who considered that “Hawara should be wiped off the map”, give wings to supremacists, whose actions rarely lead to arrests. The Biden Administration and American Jewish liberal groups have condemned Smotrich, and the White House has already advanced that no officials will meet with the radical minister on his visit to Washington this week.
“Israel is on the brink of anarchy. Netanyahu, the captain of chaos, seems to have lost control of the situation. It is reflected in their hysterical speeches full of lies," says Amos Harel, a military analyst for Ha'aretz. And he adds: "the declared war on the democratic system and the pronouncements of ministers push more protesters to the streets, even people who never imagined joining the protests." The cliché that Israelis “only protest from the sofa” is now history: every Shabbat tens of thousands of citizens – including right-wing and religious – demand that “the only democracy in the Middle East” not become a “banana republic”. .
Benny Gantz, a centrist opponent and former commander in chief of the army, warned of the real danger of a "civil war" between Israelis. Despite the social turmoil, he pleaded with the reservists to “continue to serve despite everything. We must protect Israel by protesting, and defend it militarily, despite the pain”.
From Gaza, Hamas waits for the right moment to strike. “All options are open for Ramadan. Israel's actions demand a response from the resistance, but at the right time and place," said Suhail al Hindi, a senior official in the Islamist political apparatus.
Among the police violence that marked Wednesday as "national disruption", Sara Netanyahu, the premier's wife, decided to ignore the warnings and go to her hairdresser's, in a well-stocked neighborhood in Tel Aviv. Dozens of protesters rebuked her behind a huge police cordon, shouting "shame, shame!" Bibi published a photo with Sara after returning safely from the "siege" suffered by her beloved. And she implored: “Anarchy must end. Or we will end up paying with human lives”.
