Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government has managed to fracture the two foundations of any democracy: an independent judiciary and a free press. The prime minister’s re-election campaign proves he is now targeting both for total annihilation. Helping him is Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who prides herself on having wrought a revolution in the Israeli judicial system and wants to see it through to the end.
On Jan. 18, given increasing indications that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is likely to indict Netanyahu on corruption charges before the April 9 elections, pending a hearing, a giant billboard went up in Tel Aviv with the portraits of four leading Israeli journalists and the caption, “They will not decide.”