SAN FRANCISCO — To say that today is a big news day is a bit of an understatement.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
This news broke just hours after the Blue and White Party’s Benny Gantz failed to assemble a governing coalition. For the first time in Israel’s history, a third election in under 12 months is a real possibility.
I’ve been in touch with our Israeli leadership, and if you feel confused about what is happening over there, I assure you that you are not alone: Israelis themselves are struggling to figure out what happens next. We are in uncharted waters.
The next few weeks will almost certainly test Israel’s democratic institutions, and the ultimate decision about what happens next will very likely go to the Supreme Court.
But here’s what we can say for certain:
Even though it is battered and bruised, Israeli democracy is alive. Its institutions – even those under attack by this government, such as the media, the police, the entire justice system – are holding their ground and doing their jobs.
We have watched this Prime Minister incite, bully, and rule as if there are no checks or balances to his power. Now he has been stopped short, first by the election results, and now by the long arm of the law.
The New Israel Fund and our grantees have worked so hard – in Israel and beyond – to build support for those Israelis working for justice, democracy and equality. Today is a sad day for Israel, but it is also an encouraging one for Israeli democracy.
In the aftermath of the indictment, new attacks on democratic institutions have already begun. Today, Netanyahu called the investigation an “attempted coup” and called for “investigating the investigators,” taking a line from the paranoid ramblings of our own President here in the US.
As I wrote above, we are in uncharted waters right now. These new few weeks and months may be challenging, uncomfortable, and even scary.
I am confident that, as we have during these past ten years of attacks on democracy, we will continue to rise to the challenge.
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Daniel Sokatch is the chief executive officer of the New Israel Fund.
