JEWISH PRESS
Want to Support Israeli Democracy? Then RESPECT Democratic Elections
Jonathan Tobin
August 22, 2023

…As the political warfare inside Israel has escalated since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition won a clear majority in last November’s election to the Knesset, a new variation on that theme has arisen. It comes in the form of a request from prominent Israelis with strong ties to American Jewry for their foreign friends to intervene in the debate about judicial reform that is convulsing the Jewish state to aid those protesting against the Netanyahu government. As outrageous as previous calls for Washington to fight and win battles for the Israeli left that they couldn’t win at home were, this one is actually even more unprincipled and dangerous. That was the conceit of an op-ed published this week in The Times of Israel by Daniel Gordis, Yossi Klein Halevi, and Matti Friedman. It declares that non-Israeli Jews have a moral obligation to join in the delegitimization of the government that was chosen by the people of Israel in a free and fair election. READ MORE