The heat of July and August is not just the name of an album written by Shlomo Artzi. This is the reality of our lives during these two months of every year in general, and this year in particular. The temperatures are rising, the humidity is unbearable, prices are only rising, parents are facing two months in which they have to occupy their children during the long vacation in the oppressive heat, the conversations at the president's house, which gave the feeling that maybe they really want to talk, have become exhausted, patience is about to run out - and nothing good threatens us that will come soon.
And as the heat rises, the two parts of the nation face each other. Supporters and opponents of the reform. Justice Minister Yariv Levin loses his temper after realizing that if he looks back, he will see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walking away from him. That there is hardly a remnant left of the grandiose reform, which only six months ago, on January 2, he publicly presented. There is no override clause, there is no committee for the appointment of judges in the initial format, the grounds of reasonableness, whose deliberations will continue this week in the Knesset Constitution Committee, will be softened beyond recognition, and the Attorney Generals Law will wait for the winter session. 64 seats and zero governance.
Demonstrators march to the Horev Center in Haifa // Omer Rosenberg
Ostensibly, the protest on the one hand, and the American pressure on the other, that Netanyahu will not see the Oval Office from the inside until he achieves broad agreement on the reform, led to an outcome that should lead to a different dose of protest. But apparently only ostensibly, because on Friday Shikma Bressler Schwartzman, one of the leaders of the protest, published an article titled – It is the turn of the impolite protest.
According to her: "The State of Israel faces the most serious existential threat since its establishment. Netanyahu and his extremist partners want to impose a dictatorship on Israel... We are intensifying the protest... We are not protesting to protest, but to save the State of Israel."
And as part of the impolite protest, tomorrow they will close Ben Gurion Airport, the place that puts some oxygen into the feverish bodies of Israelis, who are only asking for a slight respite from the pressure and tension in Israel. And now, that, too, is being disrupted. Unnecessary.
Shikma Bressler speaking at the demonstration, photo: Gideon Markowitz
Neither side should fall in love with its position. Compromising leadership on both sides is now needed. The protesters would do well to also make suggestions about what should be done, because on every issue there are things worth changing. And not for reform supporters who must recognize the limits of their power, not carry out a unilateral legislative blitz, and be attentive to that half of the people who feel real fear of harming democracy. And anyone who says that if we don't succeed now, it's not too bad, demographics are in our favor and we will make the revolution in a few years, is mistaken. Five years from now, hundreds of thousands will be on the streets.
Slippery slope
On the sidelines, a word about the protest that took place at the end of a pilot's course last Thursday. While the prime minister greeted the young pilots, dozens of guests in the audience, who were presumably guests of those pilots, turned their backs to him.
Will these protesters also call on them to refuse orders when, the same prime minister, sends them on a mission behind enemy lines? While the protest in Kaplan is important and successful, the protest at Hatzerim base is leading us down a slippery slope. Wise men, be careful with your actions and not just your words.
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