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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 643

Israeli democracy

Demonstrators calling for a hostage deal clash with police during a protest outside the home of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer in Jerusalem on April 13, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
April 26, 2025, 12:17 am
Poll: 61% of Israelis fear for democracy, 66% say internal rift is greatest threat
Large majority continues to favor ending Gaza war to secure hostages’ release, 54% think politics are reason for continued fighting, Channel 12 survey finds
By ToI Staff
Israelis demonstrating in Tel Aviv carry a banner in support of Ronen Bar, the Shin Bet chief fired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, March 22, 2025. (Deborah Danan / JTA)
March 24, 2025, 8:01 pm
As Netanyahu fires Shin Bet chief, right-wing Israelis join mass protests against PM
200,000 take part in the largest demonstrations since Oct. 7, reflecting a fear across the political spectrum that government moves threaten democracy, as police violence escalates
By Deborah Danan
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip on November 19, 2024. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)
March 21, 2025, 2:28 pm
For Israel, everything will not be okay
Summarily fired by Netanyahu, the head of the Shin Bet is also falsely accused of knowing hours ahead of time that Hamas was going to invade and choosing not to act. The AG is next for purging by the PM. After that, the judges
By David Horovitz
Families of Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip and their supporters dress in white as they attend a silent protest calling for the release of the hostage, outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, November 25, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
December 17, 2024, 7:03 pm
Most Israelis worried for democracy, study finds; trust in Knesset, government down
Nearly half of Israelis think the country is in a bad place, although two-thirds believe it is still a good place to live, according to the IDI’s annual Democracy Index
By Jeremy Sharon
President Isaac Herzog addresses a memorial ceremony in memory of the late prime minister David Ben Gurion, December 8, 2024. (Haim Zach/GPO)
December 8, 2024, 9:50 pm
Herzog decries coalition’s divisive judicial agenda, warns of harm to democracy
President’s warnings come as senior members of Netanyahu’s cabinet call to revive judicial overhaul, fire attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara
By Sam Sokol
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset in Jerusalem, November 13, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
December 3, 2024, 4:46 pm
Why you should be worried for Israeli democracy
The coalition is moving to centralize ever more authority in Netanyahu’s hands – at the expense of gatekeepers including the legal system, police, Shin Bet and free press
By David Horovitz
Etgar Keret and his wife Shira Geffen speak about their work in Ness Ziona, Israel, Aug. 28, 2024. (Via Facebook)
October 1, 2024, 7:30 am
Writer Etgar Keret wants to remain useful and sane in a post-October 7 world
Promoting his new book, author tells of his work with victims, the challenge of the ‘narcissistic’ anti-Israel far-left, and his internal barriers brought down by the massacre
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
A photo provided by an anti-judicial overhaul activist shows thousands protesting in Tel Aviv with a sign reading 'The court is supreme,' September 9, 2023. (Gilad Furst)
March 20, 2024, 7:19 pm
In wake of judicial overhaul efforts, global index demotes Israeli democracy
V-Dem ranking drops Israel from ‘liberal democracy’ to ‘electoral democracy,’ cites declines in transparency and predictability of law, government attacks on judiciary
By ToI Staff
Bo Nidaber activist Eytan Cohen-Munwes waits, while founder Daphne Haim-Langford engages with a passerby in the background, in Or Akiva, on September 22, 2023. (Gavriel Fiske/Times of Israel)
October 5, 2023, 10:37 pm
Establishing dialogue outposts nationwide, activists seek to hash out Israel’s rifts
Taking inspiration from Jewish religious outreach groups, the ‘Let’s Talk’ initiative sets up 50 ‘liberal democratic’ civil discourse tables across Israel every Friday morning
By Gavriel Fiske
Supreme Court President Esther Hayut and all 14 other judges hear petitions against the 'reasonableness law' at the court in Jerusalem on September 12, 2023. (DEBBIE HILL / POOL / AFP)
September 13, 2023, 4:49 pm
With Israel’s ethos at stake, 13-hour court hearing proves riveting, fateful TV drama
Rothman came to insult the judges, the coalition’s lawyer Bombach trashed the Declaration of Independence, and several on the bench intimated they may indeed intervene on Basic Law
By David Horovitz
Matti Friedman, Yossi Klein-Halevi, Daniel Gordis: 'This is a moment for alarm'
August 20, 2023, 6:18 pm
Diaspora Jews: Time to take a stand
Why world Jewry should support Israel, but not its current government, and ways to do so – beginning with a live webinar with us on September 4, 2023
By Matti Friedman, Yossi Klein Halevi and Daniel Gordis
Police use a water cannon to disperse protests against the arrests of ultra-Orthodox men who failed to comply with their army draft orders, in Jerusalem, September 29, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
August 17, 2023, 2:24 am
Ultra-Orthodox push for draft exemption law strains the coalition’s docile unanimity
Ignoring vast public outrage, all 64 coalition MKs backed the first step on Netanyahu’s march to neuter the judiciary. Will the Haredi parties’ key demand threaten that united front?
By David Horovitz
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (R) visit a military post near Jenin, July 4, 2023. At left is IDF General Yehuda Fox. (Haim Zach/GPO)
August 10, 2023, 8:53 am
Netanyahu’s extremists target Israel’s vital last sphere of consensus – the military
Plumbing new depths of irresponsibility, the coalition’s dominant far-right lawmakers, indulged by the PM, are dragging the security establishment deep into the political maelstrom
By David Horovitz
Anti-overhaul activists block the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv and clash with police, during a protest against the judicial overhaul, on July 24, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
August 3, 2023, 10:58 am
Israel implodes. The PM divides and dissembles. And MKs who could save us are silent
It’s like we’ve been taken over by a deranged, masochistic demolition squad. Except that the coalition’s Jewish supremacists, empowered by Netanyahu, know exactly what they’re doing
By David Horovitz
Demonstrators wave large Israeli flags during a protest against the Netanyahu government's overhaul of the judicial system, outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, on Monday, July 24, 2023, as parliament passed the 'reasonableness' law. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)
July 28, 2023, 12:38 pm
The wounded Jewish psyche and the divided Israeli soul
Understanding Israel’s moment of truth – from the war on Start-up Nation, to the moral crisis in Orthodox Jewry, to the author’s personal failure of empathy for political opponents
By Yossi Klein Halevi
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