A Democratic Crisis in Israel
with Omer Bartov
The October 7 attacks in Israel and the ensuing war heightened already dire political tensions in the nation’s government. In this clip, Omer Bartov explains why he thinks that the Gaza War and extremist elements in Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition in the Knesset threaten to bring Israel to the brink of a democratic crisis.
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Wow! First of all, thank you for allowing this guy on your show to demonstrate that you will in the interests of hearing different views permit even the most odious self-hating demagogue to spout his venom. Without dignifying the blood libel of comparing Israel or its democratically elected government to Hamas, or picking up on the various contradictions in this man’s presentation, I will simply point to what even the most anti-Israel observes have noted: the country has never been more united than now, as a result of the barbaric attacks of October 7, and even the most left-wing, Mizrahi-hating, anti-religious Israelis have concluded that Hamas has to be exterminated with no pause, no cease-fire and no quarter. There is no crisis of democracy in Israel. The Court has ruled (rightly or wrongly is not for me to say) on the judicial reform, and that’s that. Netanyahu may or may not lose in the next election, and he may or may not be convicted of the charges against him at some point. There is no coup, no ethnic cleansing, no retreat from gay rights, no change in the democratic character of the country, and no reasonable Israeli would agree with this man’s diatribe on the subject.
Why is there no mention of the utter lack of democracy not even to speak of women's rights or gay rights -- why is there no attention to the human rights abuses and lack of freedom in the surrounding Arab/Islamic countries. The Arab countries make up 99% of the land mass of the Middle East.