Analysts: Israel protesters follow U.S. Deep State playbook

FPI / July 28, 2023

A protest movement in Israel against judicial reform legislation aims to ultimately bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And it is following the Washington, D.C. Deep State playbook page for page, analysts say.

"The vast majority of protesters are paid, with the minimum salary of close to $100 per night, not including free food and transportation. Field organizers make several times that amount, and regional coordinators take home pay that far exceeds the salaries in Israel's lucrative hi-tech sector. Still, protests outside Tel Aviv, the bastion of the elite, have not exceeded 10,000," independent journalist Steve Rodan noted in a July 25 Substack.com analysis.

"Israel's protest movement has been directed by the American playbook," Rodan added. "You might be familiar with the playbook. Over the last 20 years, Washington has used this to topple or destabilize governments in Belarus, Georgia, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. These campaigns, financed by the United States, feature so-called pro-democracy demonstrations meant to grow increasingly violent until there is regime change."

Throwing in with the protesters who are intent on interfering in what is an entirely Israeli domestic issue are a number of American leftist Jewish organizations.

"Taking their cues from the secular liberal opposition to Netanyahu that has mobilized street protests in the last six months over the (judicial reform) plan, organizations like the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs all expressed their dismay over the vote to prevent the Israeli Supreme Court from striking down laws purely on the basis of what the judges arbitrarily claim is 'reasonable,' rather than on a point of law," Jonathan S. Tobin wrote in a July 26 analysis for JNS.

Joe Biden has been sent out by his handlers to issue frequent statements against judicial reform and the Israeli government.

"Why? Because Netanyahu's coalition includes partners that question the obsequious Israeli support of the U.S. government, which in return provides $3.8 billion per year to the Israeli elite," Rodan noted.

As the American Left's playbook dictates, the protest campaign in Israel "has entered a new stage," Rodan wrote. "Despite the kid-glove treatment by police and prosecutors, the demonstrators have become far more violent, with young men and women attacking motorists and pedestrians, blocking highways, destroying property and threatening religious Jews. They have been bolstered by former Israeli leaders, including two prime ministers, who are calling for civil war. The latest poll shows that more than half of Israelis are concerned over such a war."

The U.S. playbook also includes attacking Israel's economy. On July 25, major American credit rating companies warned investors against doing business in Israel.

"We anticipate negative consequences for Israel's economy and security," Moody's said.

The American Jewish groups joining in the Israel protests "were expressing their instinctual support for the opposition to Netanyahu, with whom they generally agree on issues relating to security issues," Tobin wrote. "In doing so, they were likely listening to the sentiments of many of their constituents, in addition to following the lead of the Biden administration and the Democratic Party, which the majority of non-Orthodox Jews supports. Just as Democrats have rallied around the dubious claim that their opposition to Republicans is a matter of defending democracy, liberal American Jews have swallowed the anti-Bibi resistance talking point about judicial reform being an attempt to destroy Israel’s democracy hook, line and sinker."

Tobin continued: "This is exactly the sort of virtue-signaling that leading Jewish groups excel in since it will have zero impact on events in Israel and costs them nothing. Aligning themselves against Netanyahu and his right-wing and religious party allies that won the last Israeli election just seven months ago undermines their claim to be supporting democracy. The same is true of their rhetoric about insisting that such legislation be passed only when there’s a broad consensus behind them—a point they’ve never insisted on when it comes to either American or Israeli policies that tilt left."

Another factor to consider, Rodan wrote, is that Israel's enemies will look to "take advantage of the breakdown in law and order. The most likely scenario is that Iran would launch a massive missile war whether in Lebanon, Syria or the Gaza Strip. For the last few weeks, Iran's chief proxy, Hizbullah, itching for a fight, has been provoking Israel’s military along the Lebanon border with the Jewish state."

Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah said: "This specific day [of the protest campaign] is the worst day in the history of Israel, as some Israelis testify, and this day sets the country on a path toward disappearance."

In last November's election, Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and religious parties broke a three-year-long stalemate to secure a clear majority of the Knesset.

"Almost as soon as it was clear that he would return to the prime minister’s office — thus continuing his record run as the country’s longest-serving leader — those who had backed the parties that lost began to take to the streets in protest," Tobin noted. "Ostensibly, the point was to oppose judicial reform, one of the key planks of the winner’s platform. However, it was quickly apparent that the people in the streets formed an anti-Bibi resistance movement."

Sound familiar?

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