When Israel’s Supreme Court late Monday struck down a judicial overhaul law of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Likud party assailed the justices for ruling during the war on Hamas, when national unity is paramount.
But the response to that backlash was telling: It was the overhaul that led to disunity and the war, a growing number of critics are saying. As chief military spokesman Daniel Hagari put it, the sense that Israel was divided and weakened over the court plan may have played a role in Hamas’ decision to attack in October.
The chorus of voices that’s seizing on the link between the war and the populist attempt to weaken the judiciary reflects a growing and intense set of constraints on Netanyahu — military, diplomatic, budgetary and judicial — as he begins his second year presiding over the most right-wing and religious coalition in Israel’s history.