An election and a Parliamentary vote have determined two separate countries’ approaches to democracy.
Election for Spain’s Parliament Fails to Put in Far-Right Government:
In Sunday’s election, Spain’s government kept out the far right, at least temporarily. Prognosticators thought the conservative Popular Party would take the government from the left coalition and govern with the neofascist Vox party. Conservativism would then rule for the first time since the end of the Franco dictatorship almost 50 years ago. The 350-member Spanish parliament requires a majority of 176 votes to form a government; the left has about 153 votes, and the far-right has 169 votes.
Although the right wing has more numbers, the left-wing prime minister can call another election or work out a deal with other parties who are primarily Catalan or Basque separatists, more likely to support the left than the right, either in a coalition or from outside the coalition but allowing Sánchez and the left to govern. The parliament reconvenes on August 17, and King Felipe VI will meet with party leaders to determine which candidate could win enough votes to become the next prime minister. Without a majority, a second vote will be two days later with the majority winning. If that fails, members have two months to appoint a prime minister. Without that success, parliament will be dissolved and a new election called next year.
Before the ultra-rightwing Vox party failed to gain votes in parliament, the “anti-woke” group had been closing bike lanes and banning Pride flags from public buildings in Spanish towns it runs in coordination with the center-right People’s Party. Authoritarian leaders of Italy and Hungary had high hopes for Spain joining them in their goal to dominate the European Union. The backing failed: Vox lost over one-third of the seats it won in 2019. Their personal disaster may make center-right leaders such as the German opposition leader more cautious in following conspiracy theorists. Even the UK Tories have taken some policies from fringe parties and dropped its competent leaders in exchange for Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
As in the U.S., right-wing members determined to pour gasoline on flames of hatred may bring more moderate voters to oppose them.
Israel Parliament Removes Checks by the Judiciary:
Israel is the other country in crisis. The U.S. has protected the country as the last democracy in the Middle East, but Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing resumption of prime minister has allowed the parliament to strip power from the judicial branch. His actions moved Israel from a more secular, pluralist society to an extremist Jewish, religious country. With no written Constitution and a single-chamber Parliament, Israel’s courts were the only protection against unjust rule.
Netanyahu can now use the judiciary to remove the indictments of corruption against him, even replacing the attorney general. He can also accelerate illegal West Bank settlement construction on privately-owned Palestinian land, curb non-Jews’ rights, expand rabbinical leaders’ power, and permit discrimination against women and LGBTQ+ people. A two-tier society among the Jewish Israelis can be created if ultra-Orthodox Jews engaged in religious study avoid military service.
Demonstrators have been protesting the possibility of the judiciary change for months. The new law passed by 64 to 0 after the opposition in the Parliament walked out. Businesses in the country closed in protest, Israel’s biggest labor union threatened to strike, and 10,000 military reservists threatened to resign. The opposition hopes to petition the Supreme Court to strike down the law because the vote amended of Israel’s Basic Laws, which is similar to a constitution. Another idea is requesting President Isaac Herzog to not sign the bill, but his position is largely ceremonial and may not carry any legal weight. Netanyahu failed to calm demonstrators by offering to return to negotiations over further judicial changes until late November, but the street protests only grew.
Palestinians, representing over 20 percent of Israel’s population, considered themselves second-class citizens because of their treatment. The vote may make their lives even worse although the government and police aren’t fighting crime in Arab towns. Since the start of the year, gun violence has left 132 Arabs dead.
Two New Yorkers from Queens are behind Kohelet, a once-hidden think tank in Jerusalem and principal architect of the overhaul of the conservative court system. Moshe Koppel moved to Israel in 1980 and founded Kohelet in 2012; he has 160 full- and part-time scholars to write conservative policy papers. Multimillionaire Arthur Dantchik has donated millions to Kohelet. Prior to the vote this week, the Israeli parliament passed legislation to change the composition of the committee selecting judges by giving government representatives the majority.
Netanyahu, prime minister for 13 of the past 14 years, strongly defended his nation’s Supreme Court before he was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. His trial started in 2021. His ruling coalition puts him in charge of both the executive and legislative branches with the judiciary branch the only check. Before the new law, courts could overturn extreme laws failing to pass a “reasonable standard,” meaning they were not made according to a basic standard of fair and just policymaking. New law removing “reasonable standard” puts Netanyahu completely in charge of all decisions.
In mid-June, Netanyahu went to the hospital, supposedly for dehydration after spending a day at the beach. A month later he was fitted with an internal cardiac monitor which indicated a transient heart block leading to his surgery for a pacemaker on July 24. He was in the hospital for the debate and then gave a speech from his office asking for unity and discussion. Opponents who found his statements insincere, promised to continue protesting.
Thousands of protesters continued to march after the law was passed, and one of the groups paid for completely black ads on the front pages at least four large Israeli newspapers—Yediot Aharonot, Calcalist, Israel Hayom, and Haaretz. The only words in the ad were the phrase “a black day for Israeli democracy.” The protest group described itself as “a group composed of hundreds of high-tech companies, entrepreneurs, and investors across Israel, guiding Israel’s advanced technology and feeling a sense of mission and responsibility for the country’s future.” Far-right Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, claimed that foreign organizations have been financing the protests which are actually grassroots efforts.
Shira Rubin, a reporter based in Tel Aviv, questions whether Netanyahu has any control over the conservative factions that returned him to being prime minister. Immediately after his election, he initiated a series of interviews in which he assured U.S. allies that “my hands are firmly on the steering wheel.” Three weeks after he took power at the beginning of January, the parliament’s far-right coalition began its radical moves, rapidly moving measures forward to take over the judiciary and quash any possibilities for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The actions were in contrast to Netanyahu’s usual deliberate style.
Analysts believe his extremist religious partners are leveraging him with promises to save him from prosecution if they can follow their own agenda unimpeded. The leader of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism bloc and his allies were appointed to the nation’s security establishment in overseeing civilian dealings in the West Bank that the bloc plans to annex.
Soon after Netanyahu was elected, Ben-Gvir, pushed against Palestinians by visiting the Temple Mount, a holy Islam site in Jerusalem where Jews also pray although it has been under control of Muslims after the 1967 Six Day War. Hamas called on Palestinian youths to “mobilize,” and Ben-Gvir’s hardline base pushed him into the visit although Netanyahu opposed it. The visit set off protests, and Israeli security forces demolished Palestinian buildings. Ben-Gvir’s goal is to take back all Palestinian land for the Jewish people. A timeline of the disasters that Ben-Gvir engendered in 2023.
The current polarization in Israel is between urban middle class including doctors, academic, and business leaders and those who are poorer and more religious, many of them living in West Bank settlements and outlying areas. Many far-right supporters are working-class Jews of Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, descent who believe themselves marginalized by an Ashkenazi, or European, elite.
Netanyahu defied the U.S. by pushing the new law without political consensus. Israel receives $3.8 billion for annual military assistance and diplomatic backing in international forums. The vote also worsens the rift between the far-right Israel government and the mostly liberal U.S. Jewish community.
Credit rating agency Morgan Stanley has lowered Israel’s sovereign rating, and Moody’s isn’t waiting until October, the time for rating updates, to also deliver a warning. Hundreds of economists, experts, and executives in Israel and throughout the world claim the “judicial reform” will lead to a sharp decline in foreign investment because of economic instability. Sixty-eight percent of start-ups in Israel have begun to withdraw cash reserves, relocate headquarters outside Israel, move employees abroad, and conduct layoffs.
The next few months will give the direction for these two countries with more hope for Spain than Israel.
Nel's New Day 