On May 12, shortly before noon Israel time, just a few hours before the Knesset began its summer session, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the Japan-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Association in distant but embracing Tokyo. In his speech, he heaped praise on the friendship between the two countries, emphasizing the common bond between the two: “We're both democratic, progressive, technological societies.”

The thing is that at that very moment, Israel’s democracy actually seemed battered and beaten as a result of the strange conduct of the prime minister and his outrageous and misplaced actions.

We’ll start with the fact that Netanyahu chose not to honor the opening of the Knesset’s summer session with his presence. He preferred to take his family on a visit to this exotic country instead, expressing the scorn with which he regards the Knesset, the nerve center of Israel’s democracy. After all, nothing important or dramatic was expected to take place in Japan on those specific days, so it was unclear why Netanyahu couldn’t postpone his official meetings with the government leaders and local businessmen by a few days.

But Netanyahu did not only fail to attend the opening of the Knesset session, which usually includes a celebratory speech by the prime minister. While in Tokyo, he continued sabotaging Israeli democracy, the same institution he boasted about to the Japanese parliamentarians. From the moment he landed on Japanese soil, Netanyahu renewed his efforts to postpone Israel's presidential election, set to take place this July.