Surge or reprieve?

There is of course the risk that this is just a simple maneuver, a way for Benyamin Netanyahu to temporize so as not to lose control definitively. Still, the “pause” of the disputed reform of the Israeli Supreme Court is a first victory for the democracy camp. In three months, this project, which seriously undermines the balance of power, has mobilized hundreds of thousands of demonstrators against it, a considerable figure in a country of 9 million inhabitants. This crisis – one of the most acute since the creation of the State of Israel – is not over. First, because the Prime Minister has not abandoned the idea of ​​having his law passed. Then, because it remains dependent on extremist formations. His Minister of National Security and figure of the extreme right Itamar Ben Gvir has just monetized the continuation of his support against the creation of a “national guard” at his boot. That Binyamin Netanyahu is considering entrusting such an instrument to a man repeatedly prosecuted for hateful provocations, riots and obstructing police work shows how far he is willing to go to stay in power. All his action seems to be guided only by the need to escape legal proceedings. The outburst of the opposition and the warnings of Israel’s historical allies made it temporarily flinch. But his anchorage, his skill and his ability to rebound are no longer to be demonstrated. Hit but not sunk, the Netanyahu government retains a narrow majority in the Knesset. The Prime Minister can continue to take advantage of a fractured political landscape and play on the illiberal temptation of part of the right. Israeli democracy, attacked from within, is not yet out of the woods.

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