Netanyahu’s war on lawyers has thrown Israel into turmoil

Chaos reigns in Israel, a country in the throes of an ad hoc general strike called by trade unions, university students, numerous industries across the country, and many military and civil defence reservists. Demonstrators are storming buildings and fighting the police. Some council leaders say they are beginning a hunger strike. If you wanted to fly into Ben Gurion airport today, as tens of thousands of people usually do of a weekday, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. It’s closed. 

Why is all of this happening? In the immediate term, because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked his defence minister, Yoav Gallant. Gallant is a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party and is a loyalist. He said that Netanyahu should possibly cool it with some of his judicial reforms. And so he had to go. 

Gallant was backed by much of Israel’s defence establishment, which has been warning that political turmoil leaves the country less safe. But that didn’t seem to matter to Bibi. In effect, as the Economist’s correspondent Anshel Pfeffer writes: ‘Basically, Netanyahu has now said he has no confidence in Israel’s entire security establishment.’