Israeli Politicians Just Showed The World How To Stand Up To Tyrants
Israeli politicians are banding together to take down Benjamin Netanyahu. Republicans should watch and learn.
Image: Susan Walsh / Associated Press
by Ben Cohen
Something remarkable has happened in Israeli politics that is providing a model for the world on how to deal with rising right wing authoritarianism. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s seemingly indestructible prime minister, is being ousted from office in a move that may spell the end of not only his political career, but his life as a free citizen.
An extraordinary coalition of warring political parties have teamed up to boot Netanyahu out of power and rid the nation of its longest serving prime minister. Netanyahu, who is currently on trial on serious corruption charges, will now face justice without the power of political office to protect him.
America, take note. This is how to deal with megalomaniacs who break the law and refuse to cede power when their time is up.
The master manipulator
For years, Netanyahu has manipulated, abused, and dominated Israel’s complex democratic system for his own ends. He has been in office since 2009 (serving an earlier term from 1996-1999), and has gone to extreme lengths to survive in one of the most ruthless political environments in the world. Netanyahu has used the media to wage vicious smear campaigns against opponents, used racist language against Israeli Arabs to whip up nationalism, committed horrendous crimes against Palestinians to bolster his image as a strong man, and kept Israel in a perpetual state of war with its neighbors. Netanyahu’s sociopathic personality, obsession with power, and extraordinary political guile has made him an almost impossible adversary to defeat. He has remained one step ahead of his enemies at almost all times.
Charged with fraud, bribery and breach of trust, Netanyahu has turned his scandal into a rallying cry for his supporters. He has created his own version of Donald Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ — a ludicrous conspiracy theory that he is the victim for a giant left wing conspiracy to take him down. The truth is that there is considerable evidence of Netanyahu’s wrong doing, and that he wants to remain in power so he can upend the rule of law and ask for immunity from prosecution.
Yair Lapid, the Yesh Atid chairman and prominent player in the new coalition, told The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg earlier this year that Netanyahu’s genius lies with his exploitation of the Jewish identity in Israel.
“The Jewish people come out of the Holocaust with two different, contradictory sentiments,” he said. “One is that we just have to survive, we can’t trust anyone, we need a strong army—we just need to survive. We saw what happened to us when we didn’t have a country of our own. The other sentiment is that we need to have liberal values, be part of the civilized world, in part because we know what happens to us when the world becomes uncivilized.”
“Bibi was the first one to come and say, “This isn’t a choice,” Lapid went on. “This is just about survival. We don’t have to live with this tension.” This is a very powerful temptation for people. He’s a skilled man, and this has worked for him.”
It is Netanyahu’s ability then to create fear has enabled him to remain in power for so long. He is the creator of many of Israel’s problems and positions himself as the nation’s only solution — a strong man who will protect the Jewish people at all costs from enemies within and without. There are no boundaries Netanyahu won’t cross in order to keep himself in power, and his trampling over political norms has pushed Israeli democracy to its limits.
Israel’s diverse political parties however, have had enough of this and a power sharing agreement has been successfully negotiated. Reported the BBC on Thursday of this week:
Israeli opposition parties have reached an agreement to form a new government that would end Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year tenure as prime minister.
Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, announced an eight-faction coalition had been formed.
Under a rotation arrangement, the head of the right-wing Yamina party, Naftali Bennett, would serve as prime minister first before handing over to Mr Lapid.
Saving the system
The coalition consist of centrist, Arab-Islamist, and far right/pro-settler parties that have nothing in common other than their hatred of Netanyahu. But this appears to have been enough:
That these parties can come together to protect the political system from further abuse should serve as a lesson to the rest of the world on how to put differences aside for the good of the country. Given their wildly diverging political beliefs, the fragile coalition of parties in Israel is unlikely to last, but it doesn’t have to. They only need to work together in the short term to get Netanyahu out of power and finally release the country from his iron like grip. Israeli politicians have calculated that Netanyahu presents such a big a threat to the system that it is worth siding with their worst enemies in order to get rid of him.
Trump is Netanyahu, but without the brains
It is useful to think of Donald Trump as a far less sophisticated and less intelligent version of Benjamin Netanyahu. Where Netanyahu calculates, Trump bulldozes. Where Netanyahu makes deals, Trump bullshits, and where Netanyahu seeks support across the political spectrum, Trump speaks only to his base. But while Trump is half the political operator Netanyahu is, he is every bit the narcissistic megalomaniac and every bit as ruthless in his bid for power.
Having witnessed four years of Trump’s war on his own party, the Democrats, and the institutions of government, one might expect political forces in the US joining up to ensure Trump can no longer run for political office. Trump, like Netanyahu, represents a severe danger to democracy, and given recent reports that he believes he will be “reinstated” as president in August this year, time is running out to do something about it.
Trump, it should be remembered, has been impeached twice, tried to instigate a coup, and is now facing a series of criminal investigations into his business dealings that could lead to his imprisonment. His crimes make Netanyahu look like a choir boy. And yet the former president is still in full command of the Republican Party and will almost certainly be the nominee in 2024.
The GOP, if it decided to temporarily work with Democrats to save the country from the grips of a delusional madman, could quite easily prevent him from damaging the country further. They could vote for an investigation into the January 6th uprising. They could work with Democrats to ensure any future candidate running for office had to make all their tax returns public. They could forego short term political gain for the survival of their party and the American political system.
The GOP despises democracy
Unfortunately for the country, the GOP appears to have no interest whatsoever in preserving the democratic system of government. They have calculated that Donald Trump is the key to attaining power, and will let him burn the country down as long as they get to go along for the ride.
In Israel, even far right settler parties appear to realize that the Democratic system in Israel is something worth fighting for. In America, only Liz Cheney and a handful of Republicans understand that without a functioning electoral system, the country ceases to exist as a first world democracy.
The disdain for elections and the democratic system is by far the most worrying aspect of Trumpism. While Trump’s policies were abhorrent, his refusal to abide by election rules and constant attempts to undermine voting have created a truly frightening scenario where most Republicans genuinely don’t believe Joe Biden is the legitimate President. The ramifications of this are enormous, and it is unclear whether the Democrats by themselves can stave off this hostile takeover of democracy. Republicans are after all, enacting grotesque voting rights restrictions across the country that could quite easily lead to a stolen election in 2024. Joe Biden was barely elected after beating Trump by more than 7 million votes in 2020, a grim consequence of America’s arcane Electoral College. Biden’s presidency hinged on honorable Republicans refusing to entertain Trump’s voter fraud conspiracies. Those honorable Republicans are now being replaced by Trump loyalists, and should margins in swing state be closer next time around, it is unlikely they will defy Trump’s orders to discount legal votes.
There are active Republicans who understand how grave this threat is, but their action thus far has been woefully inadequate. There have been whispers of a breakaway party, talks behind closed doors on how to move on from Trump, but no mass coordination that befits the urgency of the moment.
If Republicans are looking for some inspiration, Israel just showed them what is possible.
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This Is What A Pro-Trump Myanmar Coup Might Look Like Here
Trump supporters and Q adherents have publicly endorsed the idea of a Myanmar-style coup to oust Joe Biden.
Photo: Sky News/AFP via Getty Images
by Bob Cesca
WASHINGTON, DC --- This will sound eerily familiar to you.
The democratically-elected leader of Myanmar, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was re-elected last November with 83 percent of the popular vote. Almost immediately, military leaders there protested the election, claiming it was fraudulent but lacked any evidence to back up its allegations. Without evidence in hand, they jumped immediately to the most extreme solution.
In March, the military exploited a law allowing it to declare a state of emergency and, using the bogus pretext of a stolen election, deposed and arrested San Suu Kyi along with her entire cabinet in an obvious military coup.
In the aftermath of the coup, the people of Myanmar took to the streets in opposition to the military, and in support of San Suu Kyi. They were quickly assaulted by soldiers who proceeded to murder 600 protesters, while injuring hundreds more in a bloodbath that made world news that week. Meanwhile, American journalists have been arrested and detained as well -- imprisoned in Myanmar’s notoriously harsh gulags.
All of this should sound familiar because it’s exactly what Mike Flynn wants to do here. He and twice-impeached one-term loser Donald Trump’s Red Hat disciples are now looking to Myanmar’s military dictatorship as a template for what ought to occur in the United States. We know this because Flynn, along with Trump supporters and Q adherents, have publicly endorsed the idea of a Myanmar-style coup to oust Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and to reinstate Donald Trump….
This is an excerpt of today’s Members Only piece. Continue reading here and get a 2 month free trial on a Banter Membership!:
"While Trump’s policies were abhorrent, his refusal to abide by election rules and constant attempts to undermine voting have created a truly frightening scenario where most Republicans genuinely don’t believe Joe Biden is the legitimate President."
The Fascist Cheeto is indeed abhorrent, but the truly frightening part isn't what he believes or does. It's that "most Republicans" part.
That the Soviet Agent Orange wants to be a dictator is indeed bad. But it's that so many of the people on America want it too that is the real horror show.
"They could forego short term political gain for the survival of their party"
Looking past immediate gratification? That's asking an awful lot of Republicans.