Like the U.S., Israel is embracing authoritarianism

FPI / September 15, 2022

Geostrategy-Direct

The Biden administration is conducting a “full-blown political purge” of its America First foes, Fox News host Tucker Carlson reported on Sept. 12 after obtaining a Department of Justice subpoena which demands dozens of allies of former President Donald Trump hand over all their communications related to “any claim that the vice president and/or president of the Senate had the authority to reject or choose not to count presidential electors.”

The move toward authoritarian governance is not restricted to Washington, D.C., analysts say.

Israel, which receives billions of dollars in aid from the U.S., is leaning more and more in the authoritarian direction, independent journalist Steve Rodan noted in a substack.com analysis.

The Jewish State “has never been a democracy,” Rodan noted. “Its founder David Ben-Gurion ruled with an iron hand, suppressed dissent, broke strikes and used the army to block protests. He could count on his secret police, handpicked judiciary and servile media to defeat any opposition.”

Ben-Gurion stopped short of turning Israel into an open police state only because he “needed money from the West, particularly the United States,” Rodan added.

Under the current regime of Yair Lapid and Neftali Bennett, Israeli parliament essentially has no power, the judiciary is sworn to the regime, and media does not challenge those in power. And much of the funding coming in from Washington is “pocketed by the Israeli elite,” Rodan wrote.

In September, Israel’s Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a young Jewish man who had been tortured for weeks by the secret police, formally the General Security Services (GSS).

The court acknowledged that the defendant, Amiram Ben Uliel, underwent torture, or what was termed "special measures," but said his subsequent confessions could be used as the basis of his conviction and three life sentences in connection with a deadly arson attack in the West Bank in 2015.

“This makes Israel the only country in the world where torture is legal. The United States and European Union, which pressured Israel for convictions in the West Bank attack, were silent,” Rodan wrote.

In 2021, Washington, which provides about $3.5 billion in military aid to Israel, played a critical role in the formation of Israel's minority government, backed by a Hamas-aligned Arab coalition.

“Bereft of independence, the Israeli state follows orders,” Rodan wrote. “So, after a firebomb was hurled in the Palestinian village of Duma more than seven years ago, Washington demanded immediate arrests and convictions. U.S. officials also endorsed the claim of the Palestinians that Jews were behind the killing of three people.”

The General Security Services “went into action,” Rodan continued. “It grabbed nearly 100 young Jews, most of them minors, and beat them senseless.”

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