Outside Knesset, Yesh Atid MK says Netanyahu is ‘best thing that ever happened’ to Israel’s enemies

Speaking to the thousands of protesters gathered outside the Knesset in Jerusalem ahead of the final votes on a highly controversial judicial appointments bill, Yesh Atid MK Merav Cohen accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being “the best thing that has ever happened” to Israel’s enemies.

“Is this what Israel needs now?” she asks of the government’s judicial overhaul legislation. “We have hostages in tunnels, soldiers who are putting their lives in danger, reservists being called up for the fourth and fifth time — and the thing that Netanyahu is busy with — is creating control for himself over the judicial system, and dividing the nation at a time when we need to be united.”

“To tell the truth, Netanyahu is the best thing that has ever happened to our enemies,” Cohen continues. “He is the gift that keeps on giving. He has given cash to terrorists, he has weakened moderate forces, and worst of all — he has torn apart Israeli society and brought forth the [October 7] attack on us.”

Appearing to refer to Netanyahu’s reported efforts to mimic US President Donald Trump’s strategy of keeping only loyalists in positions of power, Cohen warns: Israel is not the US and you are not Trump.”

“Here they send children into war, here they kidnapped the elderly in their pajamas, and here they abused young people at a party,” she says, highlighting the impact of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror onslaught and subsequent war in Gaza.

“If you don’t respect the High Court’s ruling, then the law has no more meaning, and the legislature has no more meaning, and civil obedience has no more meaning,” she warns. “Don’t you dare take us there.”