For many months now, Prime Minister Netanyahu has not been confused. He makes sure to speak in a certain way to the American audience through the media networks there, and in a different way to Hebrew speakers here in Israel. There are those who mistakenly think that Netanyahu gets confused, stressed and then clarifies himself in Hebrew. But such a sequence of "mistakes" by a skilled politician actually betrays that this is not a sequence of slip-ups that requires repeated clarifications, but deliberately.
To stem the wave of criticism of Israel overseas, Netanyahu is saying what the home crowd expects to hear: The reform will proceed only by agreement, and also: there will be no dramatic steps without consensus. Here in Israel, he keeps telling Bays: We have not capitulated, we will advance the Judicial Selection Committee Law. We will try with agreements, but we can also do without them. This is also what the farce surrounding the agreements at the President's House looked like. On the one hand, his men initialized a compromise formula; On the other hand, moments after it was leaked to the media, the Likud announced: There was nothing, and tried to put back into the sack what was already known to many. For a moment, let's focus on the differences in English-Hebrew versions.
Netanyahu on the expected protests against him in the US: "Anti-Israel demonstrations by people who join the PLO, Iran, others" || Ariel Kahane
The protests had already crossed Israel's borders long before Netanyahu took off for the UN General Assembly, tens of thousands of dollars were invested in a campaign against Netanyahu and his government on American soil: newspaper articles, artistic performances about notorious prisons; a dedicated website under Netanyahu's name, with many slanders against him launched in honor of the meeting with Elon Musk; and campaigns aimed at curbing investment in Israel because, as the protesters are careful to portray outwardly, it is an unstable country.
In order to block the campaign, Netanyahu must outwardly strive for agreements, block reform and make it clear at every opportunity that Israel remains a democratic state and will remain so, even if some of the legal legislation does come to an end. Netanyahu, in a single campaign versus a sponsored campaign, is trying to stop the rumor mill that ultimately damages not only his image but the State of Israel directly. There is no room for complexity in these messages, so the statements are very clear: the initial legislation was bad, we will move forward only by agreement. Internally, Netanyahu has a government to preserve. Even if he did want to take the reform off the table altogether, he would not be able to take it off at the stroke of the sword. He has indeed repeatedly stated in Hebrew and English that there will be no override clause, but he cannot disavow changing the Judicial Selection Committee with the same conviction.
Demonstration in front of the Tesla factory,
The protesters, whose protest is not their art, already understand that the legal reform as presented is off the table. No more oral confessions are required by Netanyahu on the subject, even though they do not believe him. They know he doesn't have a majority to pass the changes. Those who fell in love with the protest insist on keeping its central motif alive, otherwise what will they do tomorrow morning?
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