Former Prime Minister and former IDF Chief of Staff Ehud Barak on Saturday night told protesters in Haifa that “the protest must increase and move to civil revolt, and non-violent civil disobedience.” According to Barak, “The script for civil disobedience has already been written by Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and others. I call on the citizens of Israel to prepare to act, and when the call comes, respond to it.” Last week, Barak compared himself and the protesters to Rosa Parks.
אהוד ברק: "המחאה צריכה לשנות את דרכה ולהפוך ממחאה שקטה ותרבותית למחאה שנוקטת באי ציות…"
המגיש שואל: "מה זה אומר?"
אהוד ברק: "זה אומר מרי אזרחי…"
זה אמיתי??? pic.twitter.com/MgGDCKMrVI
— גאיוס (@il7217) June 9, 2023
— מרקו למברטו (@markolamberto2) June 11, 2023
There are a few fundamental differences between Barak, and Gandhi, King, and Parks: a whole lot of money. In January 2015, Barak was asked to explain the source of his capital, with which he bought and connected five apartments in Tel Aviv while residing in a giant rental apartment in a luxury high rise, and explained he was earning more than a $1 million every year, from giving lectures and consulting hedge funds. But he also owns security companies and is a major cannabis exporter. Oh, and according to 9to5mac.com, after The US had banned NSO and its signature product, the spying app Pegasus, Barak’s company Paragon began to sell its own signature app, Graphite, a Pegasus clone (US govt banned NSO’s Pegasus, but said to buy rival spyware Paragon Graphite).
So, don’t buy Ehud Barak a loincloth just yet…
In Haifa, Barak told the protesters that they must resist any compromise over the judicial reform because it would devastate Israel’s democracy.
Of course, Israel’s democracy was devastated 30 years ago, by Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, who illegally usurped political powers without the consent or understanding of most legislators, other than the few who collaborated with his judicial revolution and have admitted as much.
According to police reports, about 15 thousand participated in the Haifa demonstration Saturday night.
From media coverage, it appears that fewer than 100 thousand showed up at the protest in Tel Aviv, and that’s, possibly, why the anarchists in the crowd decided to push things and invaded Ayalon Highway. One taxi driver had enough and started pushing his car through the anarchists. He came out of his cab and some pushing and shoving ensued.
איילון דרום נחסם pic.twitter.com/FbDGRexO0W
— Tomer Appelbaum (@tomerappelbaum) June 10, 2023
כמה דקות לפני זה – נהג יוצא מהרכב ודוחף מפגין pic.twitter.com/XD8hyzy1fz
— Aya Chajut (@Aya_Hayut) June 10, 2023
Former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni––remember her? She spoke at a demonstration in Modi’in and said that the laws promoted by the current government are “fascistic laws that will change the face of Israel forever.”
In 2005, as Justice Minister, Livni pushed changing the committee to appoint judges, as well as setting minimum sentences. Back then, she described her plan as bringing “Far-reaching changes to revive the criminal side of the law.”
Of course, Livni is not the only Israeli politician giving hypocrisy a bad name these days: Yair Lapid and Gideon Saar have both included in their election platforms judicial reforms that far outpaced Yariv Levin. And Benny Gantz, when he served as defense minister in Netanyahu’s government, insisted that both MKs on the committee to appoint judges must come from the coalition.
The solution to all these lies and violence should be blitzing legislation to pass the judicial reform with the coalition’s solid majority. But that would mean Netanyahu would not be invited to the White House, and you know how much he wants that.
