Israel appears to be mirroring certain regrettable aspects of the American political system. Mazal Mualem illuminates two instances, perhaps inadvertently, in this article for AL Monitor. First, she touches on extremism:
… the term “terrorist arson,” or as last week’s events were sometimes termed, “the arson intifada,” has since entered Israel’s public and political lexicon. As expected, these terms only boosted the right-wing coalition’s agenda.
Chairman of the Yisrael Beitenu coalition faction and Knesset member Robert Ilatov did his own part to fan the flames by accusing fellow Knesset member Ahmed Tibi of the Arab Joint List of encouraging the arson. According to Ilatov, Tibi incited the arson attacks during an interview with the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen TV network, when he called on Palestinians and Israeli Arabs to rise up against the Muezzin Law proposed by Ilatov to limit the use of loudspeaker systems in mosques. According to Ilatov, “Last week, we saw the consequences of Knesset member Tibi’s call for rebellion and his irresponsible incitement in all the cases of terrorist arson in Israel. It was a new kind of attack, completely unprecedented, which crossed every imaginable red line. What we are talking about here is nothing less than a weapon of mass destruction, sponsored by the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen TV network, the Hezbollah terrorist organization and Knesset member Ahmed Tibi.”
And then she laments Knesset members ignoring the advice of experts:
HaBayit HaYehudi was not impressed by Netanyahu’s warnings or Mandelblit’s compromise proposal. They announced that they have no plans to ease up in their efforts to advance the controversial law. Knesset member Nissan Slomiansky of HaBayit HaYehudi, chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, clarified that his committee is not obligated to accept the legal opinion of the state attorney general. He said that final authority lies with the Knesset. It is within the Knesset’s rights to reject the legal advice of the attorney general and other government advisers for that matter. That is exactly how contemporary Israeli politics has become a no-man’s land: by mocking and dismissing the professional opinions of its most senior legal authorities. In Netanyahu’s rowdy right-wing coalition, trampling on the rule of law can be beneficial politically. Large numbers of Knesset members and ministers have no qualms about taking advantage of that.
It’s distressing to see two of the pillars of democracy taken over – if temporarily – by extremists who are so certain of themselves that they won’t even recognize when their airplane has run into a mountain. What such fools never appreciate is that the abrogation of laws and traditions that kept the polity safe can also be dumped on their heads, in turn – not necessarily by their current victims, but by those who are even more willing to be extreme than themselves.
