On Saturday and Sunday, the two most vociferous leaders of the anarchist “protests,” Ehud Barak and Yair Golan, spoke decisively about the urgent need to take the resistance to a higher level––without outright advocating violence, but getting pretty close. Barak spoke about “civilian mutiny,” which is more extreme than the more common, “civil disobedience,” and Golan spoke of the need to use “illegal means” in the fight against the judicial reform.
On Sunday, the Likud party filed a criminal complaint with the police demanding an investigation of Barak’s statements “whose content constitutes crimes of incitement, sedition, and damage to law and order.”
According to the complaint, “Barak tried, to be sure, to disguise the criminality of his statements with the phrases ‘non-violent,’ and ‘civil disobedience,’ but these phrases do not change the specific essence of the act which is a call to disobey the law, to violence, and the violation of the government and social order in the country.” (Likud Files Criminal Complaint Against Ehud Barak for Incitement to Uprising)
On Tuesday, the police announced that it is investigating allegations of incitement to a mutiny against both men, one of who served as deputy IDF chief of staff and a Meretz MK, the other as chief of staff and prime minister.
Both men belittled the police announcement, saying, “It’s not suspicion of a rebellion, it’s an attempt at political intimidation of the lowest kind which is used in rotten regimes.” He suggested it was merely an “attempt to scare Yair, me, and you,” and added: “So, I have news for Netanyahu and Ben Gvir: we are not afraid of anyone or anything.”
It turns out some in the anarchists’ camp are afraid of public opinion, which is clearly shifting from exuberant and massive support to mostly annoyance. The anarchists alienated many Israelis on Memorial Day, some two months ago, when they interrupted mourners in several military plots with their anti-judicial reform slogans and the fingernails-on-the-blackboard repetition of “De-Mo-Crat-Ya,” and the ad-nauseam “Shame, shame, shame.”
On Sunday, one of the anarchists’ leaders, Ami Dror, tweeted a call to his ilk to crash both graduation ceremonies of the IDF’s officers’ school and pilots’ school. He encouraged protesters to overwhelm the prime minister’s speech in both events with their familiar rendition of relentless yelling and catcalling.
Dror instructed his troops: “This is a holiday for graduates and their families, therefore the protest is focused against the Prime Minister only (while he is walking to the ceremony’s clearing, and while he is speaking) –– we do not protest during the rest of the ceremony.”
But on Tuesday, presumably after being bombarded with objections from rank-and-fire Israelis, Dror tweeted: “Important update: at the request of the families, we ask all the participants not to disturb the course of the ceremonies. Although the presence of the defendant (that’s Netanyahu – DI) is unbearable for many of you, please try to hold back.”
עדכון חשוב: לבקשת המשפחות, נבקש מכל המשתתפים לא להפריע למהלך הטקסים. על אף שנוכחותו של הנאשם קשה מנשוא לרבים ממכם, אנא נסו להתאפק. אפשר להניף דגל, אפשר לצאת בזמן הנאום, אפשר אפילו להסתובב ולהפנות את הגב, אבל בואו ונאפשר לאירועים להתקיים כסדרם ונכבד את כל חיילי וחיילות צה”ל גם אם… https://t.co/jTaoJ5IPrp
— Ami Dror ?? עמי דרור (@AmiDror) June 27, 2023
MK Hili Tropper (National Unity) said on Tuesday: “Ehud Barak and Yair Golan have a lot of merits and were brave IDF commanders, and I have gratitude for the years they fought for the country while risking their lives. However, their statements are dangerous to the internal cohesion of the State of Israel and I deeply disagree with them.”
He continued: “I am also opposed to the government and its moves, but those who are committed to democracy must be the first to accept the democratic rules of the game. ‘Civil mutiny’ according to Barak, and ‘large-scale mutiny by illegal means’ as defined by Golan exacerbate the internal rift and should be discouraged by anyone who values democracy, especially anyone who wants us to continue living here together, despite our differences of opinion.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the IDF’s elite cyber combat Unit 8200 reservists issued a statement condemning any effort to involve reserve service in the military with the politics of judicial reform. The group called for severe punishments for reservists who refuse to serve. There were similar announcements from other elite reserve soldiers, including from the Air Force.
Only three months ago, threatening petitions from elite reserve duty soldiers opposing the reform was the main driving force of the protests.
Last Saturday night, the main demonstration against the reform, on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, barely drew 10,000 protesters. A few months ago, their number reached tens of thousands, perhaps even 100 thousand. It’s part of the reason the anarchists’ leadership is pushing the ante on the severity of the protests. The demonstration outside Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s home in Modiin on Tuesday morning involved two or three dozen, but they came armed with wire fences and burning tires.
Two weeks ago, Channel 14’s political correspondent Motti Kastel revealed messages from a secret WhatsApp group whose members are the founders of the anarchist groups “Crime Minister,” the Balfour Street protests in Jerusalem, and the Kaplan Street protests in Tel Aviv. The closed group includes senior officials, former chiefs of staff, and former heads of government, who are all looking for ways to revive the dwindling protests and are planning, among other things, to block Ben Gurion International Airport. The goal is the same as always: overthrow the Right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Exposed: As Protest Numbers Dwindle, Anarchist Leadership Pushing for Violence).
With that in mind: over the past two sessions, the Netanyahu government has met stiff and harsh resistance against every single piece of legislation, but when they passed them with their considerable 64-seat majority, the protests died down miraculously. This was most notable in the case of the real estate excise law, transferring funds for housing from wealthy to poor municipalities. As soon as the bill passed, the uproar died down.
Anyone thinking maybe this is the way to proceed with one item of the judicial reform after another? They’ll yell, and they’ll burn stuff, but the majority of Israelis have realized already that their democracy is not in danger. The anarchists lost.
