Democratic Vice: How Israel’s New Government Can Warn American Politics

Protestors gather in Israel to demonstrate against upcoming judicial reform. Photo by Hanay.

In recent years, countries around the world have weathered a rise in far-right views that have changed the makeup of their governance and inflamed the tone of their political discourse. From Donald Trump and his acolytes in the United States to a new government in Israel, extreme rhetoric demanding a redemption of greatness and the supremacy of unshared ways of life has come into international political vogue. Israel’s far right possesses a virulence that sets it apart even from the demagoguery of the Trump pantheon, yet it still stands as a versatile example of the dangers lurking in democratic societies.

Israel’s most recent election on November 1st, 2022 inaugurated a new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving premier who’s currently facing charges of corruption. His Likud party controls a 32-seat plurality, but as is parliamentary practice, Netanyahu was required to form a coalition in order to wield power. To tip the balance in the 120 seat Knesset, Israel’s unicameral legislative body, Netanyahu became politically beholden to fringe politicians in order to secure his position at the helm of a coalition government. Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir have both gained increased notoriety as the embodiment of extremism in this coalition.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir currently serve as the Minister of Finance and Minister of National Security, respectively. They are both leaders of radical political parties: Smotrich heads the Religious Zionist Party while Ben-Gvir fronts the Otzma Yehudit faction. With a combined 13 seats, their religious extremism, ultra-nationalism, and rabid anti-Palestinian views among other concerning planks marks an alarming evil for Israel’s political landscape. The rise of these extreme politicians, both in Israel and in the United States, is complex, yet the consequences of their newfound offices pose similar threats. As enablers of the worst tendencies in a conservative government, their brazen views legitimize what was once beyond the pale for elected leaders. They also signify a new tide of voters who seem more loyal to ideology than the integrity of democracy or even their nation. 

“I offer my truth and my truth is that we must save the country” Ben-Gvir, Minister of National Security, trumpeted just before the November elections. His rhetoric, issued in a similar fashion to the American far-right, unfolds salvation to a public hungering for change. We hear the same calls in the United States, to retrieve our country from an era of decay or to “Make America Great Again.” The integrity of Israel’s politics and sovereignty have never been free from security concerns, and the recent pandemic, just as it has all over the world, no doubt sowed another degree of uncertainty into the public mind. This pervasive doubt can arouse an anger that leaves voters vulnerable to conspiracy and ripens extremist rhetoric.

Netanyahu’s new government is not his first dalliance with the far right in coalition politics. It is likely his most virulent alliance, though. “Fascist homophobe,” Smotrich once labeled himself, while recently calling for a Palestinian village to be militarily “erased” following an attack on two Israeli brothers. There are countless instances of obscene claims and statements hatched from the mouths of elected officials like these, including in the United States. Downplaying the Capitol attacks on January 6th as a “little riot,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA 14th District) has been known to gaffe to the point of absurdity, recently claiming that the United States might benefit from a “national divorce” of so-called Republican and Democratic states. A secession of the “right” people from those less desirable, reframing violence as necessary and prudent, brazen lying, and a host of other claims are the substrate of the authoritarian populism that has swept governance across the world.

What can be learned from the recent events in Israel where executive forces seek to dissolve checks and balances and browbeat the judiciary? That there are consequences to sewing the fringe into mainstream government. We have seen frequent and deadly attacks on American institutions and rights over the last several years, yet even after the riots on January 6th and perhaps the most direct institutional assault in recent memory, Congress was intact enough to certify President’s Biden victory and preserve the sanctity of our system. Israel’s Supreme Court, now an important counterbalance to the legislative Knesset, could soon see its power of judicial override reduced to mere advice, dissolving the “legal boundary” between different branches of government. Israel’s judiciary faces demolition from within, not from bands of external marauders on their capitol grounds. As Israel could soon demonstrate, democracy dies a worse death by the vote than arms.

To gain his current position at the helm of the House, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA 20th District) coalesced with the more radical wing of his party, including members such as Marjorie Taylor Green. Like Netanyahu, in an act of realpolitik, McCarthy legitimized extremism as an endorsed legislative partner. With real sway in the hands of our nation’s ideological periphery, the integrity of our own democratic institutions seems far more vulnerable to dismantling than they were before. Currently, the throughline between the American and Israeli governments is a backing of the far right. Protecting the courts, rights, and lives of Americans needs something in common with the valiant protests occurring in Israel against their extreme leadership. Ensuring that the leaders of our own government think twice before intimidating U.S. freedoms means taking heed of their civic devotion. Brutes may hold undue sway, but with an international determination to check their strength, they can be spurned to the barren margin of political life.

Henry Wager (CC ‘25) is a Staff Writer for CPR with interests in foreign affairs, American government, and the law. A history major, he is also involved with the Columbia Undergraduate Law Review as an editor of the online division. He is from Upstate New York and hopes to bring rural America into conversations that span the globe.