What Does America Have To Do With The Protests In Israel And Why: Here's A Guess

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided this week to put certain proposed judicial reforms on hold.

This step-back should bring an end to a few weeks of political rancour, intense international media pressure, and violent protests on the streets of Tel Aviv.

On the face of it, the narrative is that ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu was forced by public pressure to defer sinister plans which would have eroded the impartiality of the Israeli judiciary. But there is more to this than meets the eye. Much more.

This month of March has been dominated by surprising, rapid, historic developments in the diplomatic realms, with a number of Middle Eastern countries seeking to repair ties within the region, which had lain in tatters for years.

The geopolitical ramifications of these were enormous. In the rush, most missed the goings-on in Israel, because a domestic political hubbub over some vague issue in Israel simply didn’t have the legs to stand above everything else that was going on in the world.

But on 19 March, Swarajya reported a curious bit of news, that the American envoy to Israel was openly interfering in domestic Israeli affairs, and seeking to thwart these judicial reforms.

It wasn’t immediately clear why the Americans would adopt such an adversarial approach with their closest ally in the Middle East, which went against all norms of civilized engagement between two sovereign nations.

Then, on 21 March, Swarajya noted while commenting on the confusing mechanics of new global realignments, that “three leaders have been extremely measured in their comments during this period of heady flux — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, and Narendra Modi”.

This was followed by a spate of anti-Netanyahu editorials in the Western press, and a new trend of alarmist panel discussions which said that the proposed judicial reforms would push the Israeli justice system into the control of Jewish fundamentalists.

At the same time, on the streets of Israel, protestors vandalized public property, indulged in arson, and carried placards against fascism and authoritarianism. Things still didn’t make much sense.

Then, on 28 March, came the clincher — a litany from CNN on Israel and India titled “The world's incredible shrinking democracies”, with three bylines no less.

According to it, both nations were less friends of America, and more consumed by a self-interest promoted by its religious ultra-conservative leaders, who were becoming increasingly prone to cracking down on media, dissent, and their political opposition.

Specific to Israel, the CNN article said an Israeli policy of settling Jews in “illegally occupied” Palestinian territories would be expanded under Netanyahu to the “Israeli-occupied West Bank”. This, in turn, would affect any prospects of peace between the two peoples, and postpone the chances of a sovereign Palestinian state indefinitely.

That’s when the penny dropped! America, with the help of the West, and the Israeli left-liberal establishment (yes, unfortunately, they have one too, just like us), had tried to engineer a mini colour revolution in Israel, because of Netanyahu’s silence over a multi-faceted détente in the Islamic world being driven by China and Russia.

To understand, look at the history of the past 75 years: ever since Israel was created in 1948, it has always acted aggressively, decisively, and proactively, to defuse every single threat posed periodically by inimical Muslim nations in the region.

In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the newly-formed Jewish state undertook intense combat operations for ten months, to successfully fight off the Arab League Army

In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel defeated an Arab coalition led by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan (supported actively by Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, and mercenaries from Pakistan).

In the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the Israeli victory was over a large kaleidoscope force led by Egypt and Syria, which included contingents from ten Muslim nations, the Soviet Bloc, and, as usual, mercenaries from Pakistan.

In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq’s secret nuclear weapons programme at Osirak. In 2007, they did the same in Dair Alzour, Syria, and hamstrung Iran’s efforts using the Stuxnet virus.

The point is that every time Islamic nations have banded together, Israel has acted to break such alliances by stealth, cunning, and force. And yet, we have heard nothing from Tel Aviv this hectic March but a curious silence.

Under normal circumstances, Israeli forces would have started prepping for war if Iran and Saudi Arabia decided to re-establish diplomatic relations, and bridge their Shia-Sunni divide.

Again, no Israeli alarm bells pealed when Syria and the United Arab Emirates decided to mend ties; or, when the King of Saudi Arabia formally invited the President of Iran to Riyadh for talks; or, when Egypt and Turkey decided to bury the hatchet; or, when fresh news reports emerged that Syria and Turkey might talk peace soon; or, even when it became clear that most of these meetings were being orchestrated by Russia.

Obviously, then, Israel’s diplomatic stillness over goings-on in its region has meaning.

At one level, it signals tacit acquiescence to these multiple, overlapping efforts at bringing some peace and stability back to the Islamic world.

After all, it must be borne in mind that this chapter was actually first started in 2020, when Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates decided to re-establish diplomatic relations under a peace accord brokered by American president Donald Trump.

Unfortunately, nothing material came of it because the world was engulfed in three years of continuous crisis — first the Wuhan virus pandemic, and then the West’s proxy war which was triggered by Joe Biden in Ukraine with Russia.

This period led to a further erosion of America’s credibility and influence in the Middle East, along with a declining ability to restrict hydrocarbon production from the region (because of America’s own inability to ramp up domestic production from its won shale oil and gas plays).

As a result, America’s traditional ability to ensure its security guarantees to Israel also went down. Bluntly put, America no longer possesses the moral or strategic ability to control events east of Athens, force outcomes in its favour, or even to successfully prosecute conflicts in the East on its own. That makes Israel more dependent on the aims of other nations.

One consequence is that today, now that this regional peace process has been revived in earnest, it is clear that Israel’s security is better underwritten by those powers who do wield influence in the Islamic world — Russia, followed by China, and then India.

It’s a transactional move, which is something the Jews understand better than most.

If it is in the interest of three big powers (two of whom are the world’s largest importers of oil and gas) to engineer stability in the Middle East, then the greater probability is that this is what will happen.

This is not good news for America, because if Israel, their stoutest platform between the Mediterranean and the Philippine Sea, accepts a peace process which further reduces American influence in that region, then all is lost.

And not to mention that this push for regional stability is being orchestrated by a host of exclusively non-Occidental nations who, except for India, have no love lost for America.

Ergo, a sudden international protest over a domestic matter which, in the end, forced Netanyahu to backtrack. America has shown that, if need be, it can flex its muscles and hinder Israeli moves which are not in American interests. The toolkit worked.

But how long can America continue to keep flexing its muscles thus, before it alienates and antagonizes even the left-liberal faction in Israel? That too, at a time when there is rising dissonance in Europe over the myriad miseries its citizens have had to suffer, thanks to the West’s prolongation of a senseless, counter-productive conflict with Russia in Ukraine.

Sadly, such gross American interference in the internal affairs of a resolute ally is a warning to other countries, especially India, which America seeks to bring into its orbit.

Already, New Delhi has had to suffer the designer violence which was conjured when Trump visited India in early 2020. That was preceded, and followed, by a series of toolkit manoeuvres with clear foreign links.

To make matters worse, India is getting a new American ambassador who has openly stated that he would engage with dissenting groups, and the American State Department has announced that it would be “watching” the progress of disqualified Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s criminal defamation case in Indian courts.

Above it all is a broader reality — that the process of détente in the Middle East will gain critical mass, and any American efforts to stymie it (this is a genuine fear in certain circles) will only further eat into whatever little standing it has left in the region.

Thus, in conclusion, if this is how America seeks to address its declining influence in Asia, then it will start losing even the few friends it has left in the region, and the pace of decline of American influence will only accelerate. Do they really want that?

It is a question which will define the next few decades.