The
other Israel fueled seven months of protests—all volunteer—by military special
unit reservists, high-tech entrepreneurs, university students, big business
owners, and more. Most are secular Jews or lightly religious. Almost none live
in Jewish West Bank settlements. These are the people who pay the bulk of the
taxes, fuel Israel’s economy, and fight Israel’s wars. Some may have even voted
for Netanyahu in the past. Several former Likud leaders and ministers are prominent
among the protesters—including Benny Begin, the son of another Likud leader
revered by Netanyahu.
Protests
broke out across Israel as soon as the law passed. Thousands more volunteer reserve
soldiers announced their refusal to serve this government. Doctors went on
strike until the anti-worker government forced them back through court order.
Morgan Stanley cut Israel’s sovereign credit to “dislike stance,” while tech
companies banded together to buy out the covers of four daily newspapers
(including the Sheldon Adelson–financed freebie) with a black page mourning
democracy. “Netanyahu’s unilateral regime change will soon meet the tenacity,
perseverance, intelligence, and courage of the pro-democracy resistance,”
Gilead Sher told me, hours after the vote. He is co-founder of the Central
Headquarters of the 2023 Protest Struggle and was a chief of staff and peace
negotiator for former Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
“We
have entered a new phase in the most severe, multifaceted crisis in the
history of Israel: political, societal, and constitutional.… In the long run the
liberal-democratic freedom camp will emerge politically. It should comprise all
those who subscribe to the 1948 quasi-constitutional Declaration of
Independence. I aspire to have there the center, the moderate right, the left,
moderate national-religious, and Israeli Arabs.” Until now, few of Israel’s Arab
citizens, who comprise more than 20 percent of the population, have
participated or felt welcomed in Israeli politics, seeing it as a fight between
two camps of Jewish Israelis. It’s critical that the protest movement embrace
this population, for moral and political reasons. The center-left can’t govern
again without Arab parties and their voters.