20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY APRIL 6-12, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com Rightward Shift As Israel’s prime minister attempts to wield more power over the judiciary, old allies become foes. By Angus McDowall FORUM Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed a reckoning over judicial reforms that plunged Israel into turmoil, but he remains caught between hard-right allies whose support he needs to stay on as prime minister and a tidal wave of opposition. On March 27, he bowed to mass protests to postpone the signature policy of his nationalist-religious coalition: a law tightening government power over the judiciary. But there is no sign either side is ready to back down, nor that he can find a compromise that would keep him in power without tearing Israeli society further apart. “Netanyahu is stuck,” says his unofficial biographer, Anshel Pfeffer. “He’s up against a level of opposition and protests that he never envisaged.” It shows the dilemma facing Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who managed a comeback last year, brushing aside an ongoing corruption scandal and the political obituaries written after his last coalition collapsed in 2020. Announcing the delay of the judicial law on TV, Netanyahu cited the wisdom of Solomon to say he would extend a hand for dialogue. “I am unwilling to cut the nation in two…we are not facing enemies but our brothers,” he said. Despite pushing a policy that polls show to be broadly unpopular, he derided his opponents as an extremist minority who are “stoking civil war.” Such fiery language shows the high stakes facing a prime minister hoping to extend his 15 years of power. With polls showing his coalition would lose any new election, Netanyahu can count on little goodwill from former allies. “We’ve got bad experience from the past and so first we’ll make sure there’s no tricks or bluffing here,” opposition leader Yair Lapid, a former coalition partner of Netanyahu, said of the delay. Netanyahu has shown little interest in the decades-old vision of Palestinian statehood. U.S.- sponsored Israeli-Palestinian negotiations stalled in 2014 under his watch, with no prospect of resuming. A security hawk, Netanyahu counts on appealing to the gut instincts of his voter base in gritty towns and settlements. But his options are limited. He must choose between trying to buy more time to get intractable coalition partners to back down, bulldozing the opposition with his parliamentary majority or persuading some of its wary leaders to replace his partners in a new government. Unlike in his previous coalitions, Netanyahu is not able to triangulate between factions to his left and right. Instead, the man seen as a scourge of liberal opinion for more than two decades is now on the left wing of his own government. His coalition partners include hard-right supporters of Jewish settlers. In courting their support, Netanyahu has given them top cabinet jobs and promised to create a national guard unit that critics fear will become a right-wing militia. But as the way forward becomes increasingly difficult, he may have little left to promise them. Angus McDowall is the North Africa bureau chief for Reuters. This story first appeared in The Arab Weekly. OPINION “He is up against a level of opposition never envisaged.” BEST SUMMER EVER! THE CITY OF MONTEREY FOR MORE INFO + REGISTRATION MONTEREY.ORG/REC OVERNIGHT CAMP DAY CAMPS TODDLER CAMPS SPORTS CAMPS AND MORE! REGISTER NOW SCAN ME!
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