Speaking at the opening session of the Knesset’s winter session Oct. 15, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised a "fantastic decade" Israel had experienced under his stewardship, hailing a "cool country" and boasting of its “diplomatic flowering.” But Netanyahu’s list of achievements was soon overshadowed by events.

First came the Oct. 18 Supreme Court ruling overturning the state’s decision to bar the entry of American student Lara Alqasem, who was accused of supporting the anti-Israel boycott movement. On the same day, the UN Security Council gave the floor to the director of the Israeli B’Tselem human rights organization, Hagai El-Ad, who urged the international community to end the injustice of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. Heavy international pressure forced the government to suspend the forced evacuation of the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the West Bank on Oct. 21. The same day, Jordan announced it would not renew the 25-year land lease arrangement under its 1994 peace treaty with Israel that has enabled Israeli farmers to cultivate lands along the border leased from the Hashemite Kingdom.

And while these diplomatic failures were piling up on the political right, Israel’s parched civil society started sprouting buds of regeneration. Strapped human rights organizations, the renowned Hebrew University, left-wing Knesset members and a handful of journalists have successfully taken on a wealthy government machine armed with sophisticated spy and surveillance technology and aided by hundreds of diplomats deployed around the world, a sympathetic media and right-wing organizations flush with funds from foreign donors.

In a hysterical reaction to the top court’s decision on Alqasem, Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan tweeted that the justices had “handed a major victory to BDS [the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement] and made a mockery of the law that bars the entry of boycott activists into the country." Erdan accused the three judges of “completely failing to understand the way the BDS organizations operate.” Indeed, the decision to allow the 22-year-old American to study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem is a major victory for the BDS movement, but not because the judges don’t understand the despicable modus operandi of the anti-Israel boycott organizations. The victory lies in the success of Israeli human rights groups and of the Hebrew University (who joined Alqasem in her petition against the state) in exposing the McCarthy-era tactics of Erdan and his partners. The hundreds of headlines in the world’s most influential media describing Israeli authorities’ abuse of the young student blared out news of the victory.