It was one small step for a little country, but one giant leap for democracy.
The judicial reform that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu passed through the Knesset this week was the mildest change, barring Israel’s Supreme Court justices from making up their own ideas of “reasonable” government policy.
Yet it affirmed the fundamental principles of democracy, and set an example for other free nations to follow.
Netanyahu campaigned last year on judicial reform. And unlike many politicians, left and right, who ride popular enthusiasm but abandon their promises when faced with resistance, he followed through.
He showed a willingness to compromise, too, breaking up his reform package into separate proposals, and slowing down the legislative process to allow for talks. When the opposition balked, he did what his voters sent him there to do.
Moreover, Netanyahu faced incredible resistance. His opponents included not just the parliamentary minority parties, but also the media — local and international; the financial and high-tech elite; the barons of popular culture; and — shockingly — the Israeli military.
He stared them all down, not because he wants to be a dictator, but because he had a mandate from the voters, who are the only people Netanyahu fears, and should fear.
Netanyahu also stood up to global pressure. U.S. President Joe Biden isolated Netanyahu as if he were a tin pot tyrant, rather than a democratically-elected leader.
The Biden administration held out the promise of a White House meeting if Netanyahu slowed down the reforms, then reneged on that promise and put the pressure on again.
Global financial institutions also weighed in, warning that judicial reform risked Israel’s credit rating.
This combination of pressures is what many observers likened to the “color revolutions” that have toppled governments in former Soviet Republics (and which Democrats arguably hoped would topple Trump in the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020). Like Trump, who had to be escorted to a White House bunker as the mob attacked, Netanyahu and his wife were subject to threats and assaults by mobs, as were other legislators.
Netanyahu also had to face perhaps the most unforgiving enemy: his own body. The 73-year-old former special forces commander was hospitalized twice with dehydration and heart problems during the contentious debate, and came back on the morning of the vote with a newly-fitted pacemaker. He recovered enough to lead his fractious governing coalition to a final vote on the legislation after a debate that had lasted through the night.
That is what it takes to win as a conservative, or as any kind of anti-establishment politician, left or right.
You have to understand that what you are fighting for is right — in this case, the right of Israeli voters to control their own destiny, without sacrificing judicial independence. And you have to be willing to look past every kind of challenge — the smears, the threats, the attacks, the provocations, the constant media-manufactured crises.
The ongoing chaos in Israel is a preview of what lies ahead for the U.S. if Donald Trump returns to the White House, or if Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long-shot campaign manages to succeed.
It is not going to be a return to Camelot. It is going to be a constant battle, because the establishment will not let a populist president govern.
Netanyahu is showing that it can be done — pushing ahead here, compromising there, but never giving up.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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