Israel's liberal democracy plummets out of control

3 min read EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON
Every day it becomes more evident that liberal democracy is going through a deep crisis. We don't know if he will recover, but the signals we are receiving are not positive. In different places there are signs of fatigue and even weariness, one of the most sublime manifestations being that observed in Israel, although examples abound everywhere, from the United States to Eastern Europe.

Only a few years ago Benjamin Netanyahu solemnly proclaimed that "rights cannot be protected without strong and independent courts." But a few weeks ago, harassed in the middle of the electoral campaign by a journalist who wanted to know if he was going to reform the judicial system, he denied it, saying that it was not urgent and that what was being said in the country in this regard did not correspond to reality. . Right after the Knesset was formed, however, Netanyahu has made in-depth judicial reform his top priority, ensuring that the majority is in favour. The protests have multiplied, but Netanyahu seems determined to carry it out.

It is obvious that moderate liberalism is losing the battle and that reforms such as those carried out in Israel or in Spain, which are not even carried out in a veiled manner, will end up turning the government into the law, a dangerous identification that distances us from liberal democracy, whose fundamental pillar is the separation of powers. In Israel the clear motivations are of a nationalist and religionist nature, two coercive ideologies typical of the right, while in Spain they are only nationalist.

Critics accuse Netanyahu of being a populist, but it is worth asking whether a government that is not populist, both on the right and on the left, is possible today. People demand immediate answers to complex problems that seem easy to solve. People are tired of liberalism and want to bury their values without even having the will to compromise. He believes it is natural and legitimate to seek simplification, the same thing that its leaders do, some pushed by others and vice versa. To this we must add the strong identity, nationalist and religionist tensions that are flourishing everywhere, to prove that we are facing a potentially too flammable combination.

The great judicial reform that Netanyahu undertakes will make whoever wins the elections become
owner and master of the State, something similar to what is happening in Spain, and that in fact
ends the separation of powers. Tzipi Livni, former justice minister in a Netanyahu government
a few years ago, and a retired politician who rarely gives interviews, has jumped into the spotlight.
fore warning that Netanyahu is preparing to "destroy democracy." “The majority have voted for
this government, yes, but the idea that the majority can do what they want is not democracy," he said.
Livni said as if she was also talking about Spain.

The new justice minister, Yariv Levin, who has launched Netanyahu's project, has
responded to Livni: “It turns out that we all vote at the polls and choose, but then those who
really govern are the judges, who have not been elected. This is not democracy." This
argument is criticized by liberal leaders, but accepted by populists. As one has said
jurist, "it is not that the government is going to be above the law, it is that the government is going to be the law."
Levin sees it natural for the government to want to obtain broad control over the appointment of judges, as is the case in Spain, as well as to limit the power of the Supreme Court, granting parliament special powers to annul Supreme Court rulings that do not please the government through a majority of half plus one of the deputies.

Liberals of all political affiliations, including Netanyahu's Likud, see in the reform the
greatest challenge Israel has faced since its establishment in 1948, warning that
it is only democratic in appearance. Netanyahu has taken off his mask to openly defend the illiberal idea of other leaders such as the American Trump, the Brazilian Bolsonaro, the Hungarian Orban or the Polish Kaczynski. It is no coincidence that after the violent attacks in January in Brasilia against the three powers, Netanyahu remained silent and did not condemn the events.

The Israeli prime minister seeks a majority government, subtracting power from independent judges, that is, without any kind of control and counterbalance by the Supreme and Constitutional courts. Is this democracy? Liberals of all tendencies assure that they are not, but their strength is diminishing every day and in Israel they have to lose, as is happening in other parts of the West.