Israel – Political Crisis and Al-Aqsa Raid

April 15, 2023

Israel – Political Crisis and Al-Aqsa Raid

Padmini Arhant

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government authorized and conducted violent aggressive raid against peaceful unarmed Palestinian worshippers in Islam’s third holiest Al-Aqsa mosque in the past week is symptomatic of the Israeli leadership trepidation and frustration over latest domestic debacle related to Israel’s judiciary overhaul.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brazen attempt to weaken and undermine Israel’s Supreme Court through government policy to overhaul judiciary was met with nationwide protests including Israeli conscripts in Israel’s Defense Force (IDF) joining the nation against Israeli PM’s overt executive empowerment action.

Israeli population en masse protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial unconstitutional undemocratic intervention citing transfer of power from judiciary to legislative and executive branch in Israeli political system was perhaps unexpected in terms of citizens’ solidarity to defend democracy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of  own cabinet defense minister Yoav Gallant was a sample of executive extra judicial power lately reversed in the aftermath of withdrawal of contentious judiciary amendment.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s desperate measures and outreach against judiciary is directly linked to lingering corruption charges stigmatizing and constricting the seasoned politician’s maneuvering polity.

The resistance tsunami in response to Israeli PM’s defiance led to reining in on knee-jerk reaction from the head of the state.

In order to turn the political tide and setback experienced in judiciary overhaul matter, the Israeli leadership approved armed raid in Al-Aqsa mosque is in fact repeat event in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s tenure.

In May 2021, in the height of political crisis with coalition falling apart under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s headed government, similar and more violent raid was authorized in Al-Aqsa mosque producing fatalities and settler incursions against native Palestinians in East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Unfortunately for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Al-Aqsa raid and Palestinian worshippers’ deaths then in 2021 could not avert PM Netanyahu government fall.

Instead the radical move enabled self-displacement with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett sworn in as successor in Israel’s politics in June 2021.

The movie replayed all over again in 2023 in the last week Al-Aqsa mosque attack is a typical political tactic in politics to win back public trust in leadership utterly failed in trustworthiness and credibility.

The political mistake to turn internal tide offshore against citizens and nations near and far when the incumbent leadership and government feet are held on fire in domestic politics is standard political tradition.

The difference this time around is currently the practice prolific in different parts of the world beginning with the United States, India, Israel, Russia, China…the so-called behemoths’ reliance on foreign policy and military confrontation to deflect public attention from dismal domestic performance.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s same experimental methods in the hope of delivering different results is scientifically and politically debunked time and time again.

The intoxication of power overwhelming reasoning faculty debilitating ability to abandon woeful means is the only vivid outcome in the political gamble.

Lessons never learned in life is the biggest irony amongst those unwilling to accept reality.

Padmini Arhant

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