'Intolerant and illiberal': Conservative Israeli defender slams country’s far-right leadership

31 July 2023

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has plenty of defenders on the American right, especially among Christian fundamentalist evangelicals and MAGA Republicans. But Never Trump conservative Max Boot is vehemently critical of Netanyahu and his allies in his July 31 column for the Washington Post, slamming their recent efforts to undermine the power of the Israeli Supreme Court.

Boot has long been a passionate defender of Israel. But by limiting the Court's power, he argues, Netanyahu and others are attacking Israel's systems of checks and balances and trying to move the country in an authoritarian direction.

"It's never been harder to be a supporter of Israel," Boot laments. "I should know; I've been one as long as I can remember. In fact, I almost became an Israeli myself…. As an adult, I made numerous trips to Israel and marveled at the vibrancy of its culture."

The Washington Post columnist goes on to say that Israeli's far right troubles him as much as the MAGA far right in the United States.

"While I retain affection for Israel," Boot explains, "I often feel as if I do not recognize what it has become. This is a familiar feeling for me, since I am similarly befuddled by modern America: How did we turn into a land of book banners and COVID deniers? Both Israel and the United States have been disfigured by the rise of populist rabble-rousers who have tapped into ugly and unsavory prejudices."

Boot adds, "While our far-right president was narrowly unseated in 2020 and is now on the comeback trail, Israel's far-right government remains firmly in control despite its exceedingly narrow winning margin. It just flexed its muscles by passing a law that will prevent the Supreme Court from overturning legislation on the grounds of unreasonableness — an admittedly subjective standard but one that has limited the ability of settlers to seize more land in the West Bank and of the ultra-Orthodox to be exempted from military service."

Boot warns that the "secular, socialist Israel of my youth is fast disappearing" and being replaced by a country that is "turning intolerant and illiberal."

In an op-ed published on July 30, Haaretz's Dahlia Scheindlin stresses that a new Ma'agar Mohot poll shows how unpopular the "radical overhaul of" Israel's "constitutional" system is.

Scheindlin explains, "The poll showed Likud losing about one third of people who reported voting for the party in 2022. Nearly 20 percent of those voters, in total, have moved 'leftwards' — to the center-right National Unity Party headed by Benny Gantz and Gideon Saar…. These trends line up neatly with the findings regarding the abysmal unpopularity of the judicial overhaul program itself."

Scheindlin adds that the survey "went on to ask all respondents" if they "support or oppose the law passed in Knesset this week, canceling the reasonability standard."

"A majority of 54 percent oppose the law — 20 points more than those who support it, just over one third," Scheindlin notes. "That gives empirical backing to what Israel has seen every day on the streets for 30 weeks: unwavering if not escalating protests around the country in overwhelming numbers."

Find Max Boot's full Washington Post column at this link and Dahlia Scheindlin's Haartez op-ed here (subscription required for both).

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