In the early days of March, a small crowd of leftists gathered outside the U.S. consulate in Tel Aviv holding up signs reading, “Biden help!” and “Biden, Blinken, Our democracy is sinking”.
A speaker at the rally appealed to Biden to “save us from ourselves”.
The consulate rally was held under the banner of “Defend Israeli Democracy” which had organized international protests against democratic judicial reform that would have restored checks and balances. International rallies, including one in Berlin which featured women dressed as the ‘handmaids’ from the TV show and signs accusing Israel of “fascism” and being an “apartheid state”, were not speaking to Israelis, but to the international anti-Israel Left.
Clips from the Tel Aviv rally were remixed by another of the interchangeable anti-democracy groups, Yalla Tikva, urging Biden to save Israeli democracy. The operation was as slick with professional videography, editing and branding as it lacked a clear transparent structure.
Protests like these were not so much appealing to Biden as coordinating with the administration.
The anti-democracy rallies by organizations claiming to be fighting for democracy paralleled an unprecedented degree of interference from the Biden administration.
“We don’t want to interfere,” Biden told reporters after Israel had surrendered on reforming the judiciary. “Anyway, we’re not interfering.”
“They cannot continue down this road,” he warned.
On Monday morning, Biden’s ambassador delivered an ultimatum to Netanyahu ordering him to stop the reforms. Later that day, Netanyahu officially announced a pause on judicial reform.
This followed public statements from every Biden administration official, including Secretary of Defense Austin, warning Israel not to proceed and urging the democratically elected government to turn over the process to its political opponent: leftist figurehead Herzog who had served as Marc Rich’s lawyer when negotiating a pardon with the Clinton administration.
Why was the Biden administration so obsessed with internal questions such as who picked Israeli Supreme Court justices and whether they could ever be overruled by the legislature?
While the leftist rioters in the streets clamored that they were fighting for democracy, the Supreme Court is the least democratic institution and the mobs were demanding that it stay that way. None of the American media outlets or politicians accusing the Israeli government of threatening democracy ever got around to explaining why elected officials selecting justices is a good thing in America and a bad thing in Israel. As Ruth Wisse, the greatest living Jewish academic, pointed out in the Wall Street Journal, some of the same advocates of weakening the United States Supreme Court violently denounced efforts to check the power of Israel’s court.
The Israeli Supreme Court is mostly immune to democratic influences like elections, and is not governed by a constitution, but derives its power from claiming unlimited standing to take on any cases it likes. But to trigger this superpower, it needs nonprofit groups to bring cases to it. These nonprofits are primarily funded by foreign interests from George Soros, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Tides Center to foreign governments in the European Union and America.
How it works is simple enough. A leftist nonprofit funded by a foreign government sets out to stop a policy by a democratically elected government. Even though it is in no way affected by a policy, such as building homes in Judea or cracking down on terrorism, it sues anyway. And even though it lacks any standing, the Supreme Court takes the case anyway and rules for it.
The actual case however was really brought by Soros or the EU or D.C. The Israeli Supreme Court acts as a rubber stamp for rule by foreign governments through leftist groups.
While a lot of the online protest groups conducting anti-democracy rallies were unknown, the larger Israeli rallies were led by the Movement for Quality Government. MQG is a serial plaintiff which repeatedly brings cases to the Supreme Court. In 2020, MQG hired a D.C. law firm to investigate Netanyahu. That same year, MQG began getting money from the State Department.
State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel claimed that this was false because MQG “received a modest grant from the State Department that was initiated during the previous administration” meant to promote civics in schools.
“Any notion that we are propping up or supporting these protests or the initiators of them is completely and demonstrably false,” Patel fumed.
But money is fungible and the State Department was well aware that MQG’s primary field of activity was lawfare. The plague of leftist nonprofits funded by foreign governments is an old problem that predates this administration. And touching it is the real red line.
In 2016, there was outrage when the Israeli legislature passed a law requiring nonprofits to disclose foreign funding. Even though the government bureaucracy refused to enforce the law, it nonetheless resulted in MGQ disclosing its funding from the State Department.
The State Department had claimed then that asking nonprofits to reveal foreign funding would “have a chilling effect on the activities that these worthwhile organizations are trying to do”.
Examples of such worthwhile activities had included the State Department funding a previous protest campaign against Netanyahu in 2015 using a “peacebuilding” nonprofit named One Voice.
In 2021, Israel cracked down on six nonprofits tied to terrorist organizations. The State Department warned, “we will be engaging our Israeli partners for more information regarding the basis for the designation. We believe respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and a strong civil society are critically important to responsible and responsive governance.”
The pattern is not difficult to spot.
The Biden administration, the EU and other leftist foreign governments use nonprofits and the legal system to control Israeli policy. When those tools of control are threatened, they step in.
The Obama and Biden administrations had fumed when Israel began forcing nonprofits to follow the law, but judicial reform was a line in the sand. Had judicial reform passed, democracy would have come to Israel. And a bunch of leftist governments couldn’t have used their puppets to overrule the will of the people. That was why they did everything they could to stop it.
What the media portrayed as organic protests were nothing of the kind. They were often backed and organized by tech companies. Some of those same companies, to protest judicial reform, announced that they were pulling their money out of Israel and sending them to SVB. The collapse of the bank, closely associated with leftist interests in the United States, was only a brief inconvenience since the Biden administration rushed to bail out its depositors.
Israeli startups draw on investments from American companies and investors: many of them close to the Biden administration. The SVB connection, a clearinghouse for woke capital, just spelled out the obvious. The coup against democracy was backed by foreign interests and implemented by the billionaires, who control much of the Israeli media, and leftist activists who are employed by nonprofits funded by foreign governments and foundations.
Political consultants rushed to brand the coup as a “democracy” movement even though there’s nothing less democratic than protecting an undemocratic institution from democratic change.
The Biden administration, which had been in on it all along, pushed for a “compromise” from Marc Rich’s former lawyer that would have kept the Left in power even while denying what it was doing, or that judicial reform was shut down after a Biden ultimatum.
Prime Minister Netanyahu backed down, as he often has, but the confrontation was revealing because the puppet masters were forced to show their hand. American Jews were largely fooled by the media’s propaganda campaign, but Israelis saw all too clearly who the activists and, more importantly, the Supreme Court really works for and whose power it serves.
The Israeli Left has consistently lost elections while clinging to power through undemocratic institutions like the Supreme Court and fake third parties. It’s fighting a war on democracy that it’s bound to lose. The ‘handmaids’ marching in Berlin and the radicals holding up posters accusing Israel of fascism in Hitler’s city have shown Israelis what they really are.
The greatest threat to democracy in Israel has always come from the Left. What was once a domestic oligarchy has evolved into a puppet regime. And the Israeli Zionists have learned that they can expose the puppet masters by pulling on the puppets and seeing who comes for them.
“Biden help!”, “Biden, Blinken, Our democracy is sinking”, “save us from ourselves”.
Lenin, also, exploited mutinies to foment revolution.
All,
I guess democracy is better than nothing. The Israel of today has forgotten the Lord yet again, just like America. Remember, God’s word will never pass away.
What is your definition of “democracy”?
And what has it got to do with G-d’s word?
Definitely expecting an answer, thanks.
This corrupt administration is helping to destroy the conspiracy theory that Israel rules the world.
Biden like Obama will do anything to get Bibi out of the way so that he can appease Iran and isl as mic terror
Thesr protests have less to do with judicial reform and more to do with overturning the election results that returned Netanyahu to power. Protests of what is, in reality, a democratizing judicial reform is just a pretext. Leftist former PM gave the game away on a recent video revealing that the Israeli Left had studied the matter and determined that if it could get 3.5% of the population into the street, the government would fall within six months. But remember, whenever conservatives win actual elections here or in Israel “Our democracy is a stake.”
Supreme Court there seems to be the way they get at Netanyahu so it’s one and the same thing, Americans may not know that Bibi is constantly investigated & charged with “crimes”( Im told some that never existed on the books before). I think one had to do with his wife recycling bottles.
Indeed. Hoax investigations that exist for their own sake even though they never produce anything.
So I take it that Israel’s judiciary is left-wing and also serves the moneyed interests? I saw the Israeli marchers on TV but the story was they wanted government reform. What “reform?” The protection of the tyrannical judiciary and the removal of Netanyahu? Or are they in favor of real reform of the judiciary?
Netanyau was a fool to capitulate. The people who hate him will always hate him no matter what he does, and the organizations which oppose him, likewise, just as with Trump.
The answer to all the above questions is yes, except for the last question.
The puppet “president” Joe Biden and those “behind the curtains” who are are the puppet -masters of Biden, use him and his crew who make up his regime enact such policies designed viciously against Israel and those polices will come to nothing in the end.
For all those scheming villains are all greatly overruled by God . Who in His benevolence for the Jewish State of Israel will keep her from being destroyed.
As the Bible informs in reader in Psalm 135 :4. “For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure.” [N.K.J.V.]
Israel has been destroyed before, Walter.
If it had truly been “destroyed”, it would not have reappeared in 1948. Get a grip!
Joe Biden and his regime along with “power elite ” who control creepy old Joe ,they in their demonic union against the Jewish State of Israel will only have their evil plots come back down on them to their own harm in the end.
For the Bible reads “Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished”. Proverbs 11:21.
21 st. century Democrat party is no friend of Israel or Jewish people. Today’s Democrat party is returning to its pre civil war roots. Racist, Anti-Semitic tyrannical party.
Revelatory article. I know of no other sources that provide such in-depth coverage – not even those such as JNS. org. Sadly, most non-readers of FPM will never read about any of this appalling information and will have a completely distorted understanding of the situation.
People distrust the media, but they still get their information from it.
This is what I asked you for a few days ago. I knew of most of the players, but needed a more coherent overview. Now that I see the larger picture (and yet I’m still not surprised). Anyhow, thanks for this.
I’ve read some Ruth Wisses’ scholarly articles. I’ver also read her “If I am not for myself”. I ordered “Jews and Power” a few days ago from Amazon and am awaiting its arrival. These last few years, I’ve been asking myself questions about why so many of us are lickspittles for what I believe to be an essentially Anglo-American agenda. I’m mostly interested in the psychology of treason to one’s own tribe–to ones own friends and family, even– and sucking up to whomever is the emperor or king de jure. I’m sure it’ll be an interesting book.
Another year of undermining another spring in the Near East, as some would say…
When Amb”ass”ador Nides (one of the many Jews in the Obama/Biden administration who have been specifically handpicked because they are rabidly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel) told the modern day Maccabees in Israel‘s current government to “put the breaks on” passing laws and judicial reforms that are necessary to ensure Israel’s survival – he’s the most current in a long long line of our enemies who’ve always wanted to “put the brakes“……..on us.
(i.e. pogrom, rape, assorted massacres, gassing, incineration, slavery, exile, final solution, two state solution).
Let us recall the prototype of the Torah’s hard hearted Pharoah who’d rather destroy his own country and people than be a God-fearing mensch and leave us alone and “let” us live in our own God given land.
I don’t think it’s fanciful to believe that the American left decided to enter Israeli politics by actually starting and financing its very own party in Israel: You know, the party headed by Gantz, originally called “Resistance”, then “Blue and White” and now, in its latest mutation, called “National Unity” (of all things!)
Didn’t Obama say, “I’m the president. I can do anything I want.”? It seems he wants to destroy Israel.
And we know he’s still the president…..
Well, news flash:
you can’t always get what you want.
I’ve always known Gantz is a piece of crap but I had no idea he was owned by the Dirtbagocrat party. The Dirtbagocrats sure like to meddle in Israel’s internal affairs in favor of the Psuedostinians.
You wrote: ” protests against democratic judicial reform that would have restored checks and balances.” Are you serious??? “restored checks and balances”??? You don;t have a clue, fella. This government has laws on the table that removes ANY and ALL possible opposition to whatever laws it passes. How else do you spell dictatorial regime??? And Netanyahu is held hostage by very extreme far-right interests and theocratic agendas. Let alone nepotism having his son Yair dictate an agenda – like having the Defense Minister Gallant fired when nothing could be more reckless. Note that even if Natanyahu agreed that he be fired to appease his son, Gallant remains Defense Minister. Equally reckless is labeling the demonstrators as “leftists”. Some are, most aren’t.
Israel is ruled by the judiciary, you twat. I’m American and even I know that.
“Some are, most aren’t.”
No, Most are, some are not. Nice sleight of hand, but it isnt fooling anyone.
You clearly haven’t read the reform proposals – you’ve only read the media hype. And yes, they provide badly needed “checks and balances”.
In the proposal, an elected gov’t coalition can immunize a law from being reviewed by the Supreme Court — but the immunity expires a year after they leave, unless the next elected coalition renews it.
The operative word – ELECTED – means the voting public will have a say about which laws the SC can or can’t strike down. If the voters think the immunity was wrong, they can ELECT a new coalition that will reverse the decision.
In the 1980s the SC set themselves up with NO limits of judicial authority, NO “checks and balances” for their decisions, and NO way to temper their monolithic “progressive” worldview.
One man decided that, so there’s your dictator..
(Hint: It wasn’t Netanyahu)
Since then, our laws are made or trashed, enforced or overruled, by 15 unelected elitists appointed by another unelected elitist. He chooses new SC Justices from a list of people who cannot even BE on that list without the approval of the sitting SC Justices.
With “democracy” like that, who needs a dictatorship?
Israel is ruled by the judiciary, you twat. I’m American and even I know that.
Bibi should publicly expose what the message from Biden said. Why won’t he travels it publicly?
Thank you for a great yet brief synopsis on Israeli politics. It makes more sense than any other I have heard.
Footnote: I have heard no other that sounds believeable.
Amazingly Daniel: Last week I published a post in French on this subject :
Hag Samech dear friend.
It’s the same Political Gotcha politics going on in Israel as in the United States. Solid-elected leaders are in the way of the New World Order, the elites and oligarchs continually plot ways to do evil and undermine the will of the people.
I fail to understand how the United States has failed to recognize dementia in its president, for the second time. Reagan was clearly suffering from dementia mid-way through his first term, yet got re-elected. Biden refused to publicize results of cognitive testing, though he may have undergone testing. It is we, the citizens, who appear to be powerless to change ourselves in our election choices, and fail repeatedly to recognize what is staring us in the face. When Biden, thanks to the media, is re-elected, WATCH OUT!
What is your definition of “democracy”? And what has it got to do with G-d’s word?