Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned his cabinet on Sunday that there had been a similar threat in Israel, following the attempted assassination of U.S. President Donald Trump the previous day.
Netanyahu has been the target of violent protests and threats since taking office after the November 2022 election and implementing promised judicial reforms. The protests, backed by the Biden administration, subsided after an Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack but have since risen again, along with a sense of political division.
The Prime Minister’s Office submitted a transcript and translation of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statement to the Cabinet.
Death and violence threats against the Prime Minister and his family, as well as against ministers and civil servants, have come to light one after another. These are not just clear criminal acts, they are direct and clear threats to democracy. Yet essentially, with a few minor exceptions, nothing concrete has been done to address them. I ask the Attorney General and the State Attorneys General. This is your job.
Basically, nothing concrete has been done about this flood. We saw it under the previous government and even before that, when there was a shameful legal case on the other side – when mothers and children were arrested on the Sabbath. Letters were sent to Chancellor Bennett in which we all condemned him, which led to arrests and imprisonment.
But it is impossible to compare this mass of explicit intimidation, which is a criminal act, with inaction or something else, which is the silence of government officials. We have not heard any condemnation. There should be condemnation, but government officials are silent and do not condemn. Here we have a justification for an attack on democracy, a normalization of political murder, and everyone feels that here we have arbitrary execution.
Because we have seen the full force of the law being applied to minor road blockades, with the strictest interpretation of the provisions being used to arrest 14- or 15-year-old girls, when compared to what is happening today, when there are far fewer, if any, crimes against right-wing elements, settlers, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Ethiopians.
This did not happen gradually. That is not true. I do not accept it. It happened when we returned to power and then with great force. It started with the demonstrations on Balfour Street in Jerusalem, through the demonstrations in Petach Tikva against the then attorney general, through the reform negotiations, and now through the demonstrations during the war.
Each time, the target changes, but it is directed at the right wing, and the enforcement is not equal. It is not equal, it is not changing gradually, it is changing rapidly. Of course, this is gaining momentum because they are always testing the limits.
And then everything is permitted. It’s permitted to lay grenades and torches, to violently attack police. It’s permitted to block highways with fire. It’s permitted, permitted, permitted. Attacks on democracy are normalized here. Political murders are normalized here. We’ll get to this next week.
With what happened in the US, many have said the warning signs were there. We see the warning signs. We see the letters in boxes. We see the letters on social media. We all see it. Ministers sitting at the government table are unanimous in saying: “This has to be taken seriously and equally.” So far, that has not happened.
In November 1994, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing extremist after a peace rally.
Joel B. Pollack is executive editor of Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday The show airs Sunday nights from 7 to 10 p.m. (4 to 7 p.m. ET) on SiriusXM Patriot. He is the author of “Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” which is available for preorder on Amazon. He also wrote,Trumpian virtue: The lessons and legacy of Donald Trump’s presidency” is available on Audible. He is the 2018 recipient of the Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter. Joel Pollack.
Photo: File
