Joel Rosenberg: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under withering attack from multiple directions.
U.S. President Joe Biden sent his national security advisor to Jerusalem this week to warn Netanyahu to back off legal reform – Bibi’s top legislative priority – or risk rupturing U.S.-Israeli relations.
Israel’s Supreme Court ordered him to fire Deputy Prime Minister Aryeh Deri.
More than 110,000 left-wing Israelis took to the streets last Saturday night, calling Netanyahu a threat to democracy.
And he’s being pummeled in the mainstream media and in the Knesset day after day.
But Netanyahu’s allies say that far from seeking to crush democracy he is actually trying to save democracy from an Israeli “Deep State” fixated on thwarting the will of the people and bringing his right-wing government down.
Who’s right? Who’s wrong? And could Christians here get caught in the crossfire?
This was my central focus on THE ROSENBERG REPORT last night, and my opening commentary is below.
[To watch the full episode, please click here]
WHAT’S DRIVING THIS WHITE-HOT BATTLE?
Israel is embroiled in the most intense political and social battle I’ve ever seen.
Apoplectic that Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu is back in power, the left-wing media, political, and legal elites are attacking him from every conceivable direction, desperate to bring him down.
Accusing him of trying to impose a one-man tyranny, they’re relentlessly making their case on TV, on the front pages, in the streets, in the Knesset and in the courts. It reminds me of the non-stop war to bring down Donald Trump and stop his conservative reform agenda.
But Netanyahu and his allies are pushing back hard. They say it’s Israel’s “Deep State” that’s trying to crush the will of the people and destroy a democratically-elected government with a clear mandate for reform.
It’s a fight that’s threatening not only to blow up U.S.-Israel relations but Israeli society, as well.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog warned this week, “This powder keg is about to explode. It is a time of emergency, and the responsibility is on all of us” to cool things down.
What exactly is driving this white-hot battle for Israel’s future?
Let’s look at what’s happening, why it matters and why we need to be praying for Israel and her leaders more than ever.
And let’s begin with a Times of Israel headline that captures the heart of the matter: “Netanyahu truly aims to be ‘King Bibi’ now. We must use all legal means to thwart him. Deaf to all warnings, convinced his and the state’s interests are identical, flanked by criminals, extremists, and theocrats, he is hellbent on attaining near-unlimited power.”
I can’t think of a headline that better summarizes the heart of this battle.
Israel’s elites simply hate Netanyahu, see him as a threat and are doing everything possible to bring him and his right-wing government down.
Yet they completely dismiss the fact that Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister for one simple reason: Israelis keep electing him.
Israelis may not agree with everything Bibi says or does.
Nevertheless, they believe he’s the right man for the job.
“And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding. Daniel 2:21
(Photo: Screenshot/The Rosenberg Report/TBN)
At the center of the current storm: Netanyahu’s campaign vow to fundamentally reform the country’s legal system.
Netanyahu and his allies accuse Israel’s Supreme Court as being a government unto itself, an unelected, unaccountable body whose justices routinely strike down laws they view as “unreasonable,” even though those laws are passed by the country’s democratically elected and thus accountable representatives.
What’s more, Netanyahu and his colleagues question why Israel’s sitting Supreme Court Justices can veto the appointment of new justices.
Imagine, Netanyahu’s allies contend, a scenario in which liberal justices on the U.S. Supreme Court could veto the appointment of conservative jurists like Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett?
How could a conservative-minded public ever pass conservative-minded laws through the legislature if liberal-minded justices could block conservatives from even sitting on the bench?
Netanyahu’s critics argue that his reforms would trample the rights of Israel’s minorities, including Arab Muslims, Christians and others.
What’s more, they warn that a prime minister on trial on three corruption indictments has no business changing the rules of the game.
Adding fuel to the fire: Biden is warning Bibi to back off.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who was in Jerusalem this week, told Netanyahu: “We as administration don’t like the direction you’re going in when it comes to legal reform. If democratic values are undermined, it will make it difficult for us to provide unshakable support for Israel.”
But Netanyahu rejects such criticism.
“The claim that legal reform is the end of democracy is completely baseless,” Bibi declared.
Read More @ All Israel News HERE
