The results of this week’s elections pose the direst threat to Israeli democracy since the state was founded 74 years ago. Israel has always been under existential threat from the enemies around it. It fought for independence, endured numerous wars and waged endless military operations over the years. Overcoming all odds, Israel transformed itself from an underdog into a regional military, technological and scientific superpower, from a destitute barren land into a prosperous state. For years, it dismissed warnings that the real danger to its future lay within its fractured social, religious and political structure, rejecting them as leftist propaganda and prophecies of doom.
If they implement their plans and realize their ideology, the ultranationalist and religious partners in the emerging coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could eventually turn Israel into a quasi-authoritarian state similar to Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Philippines under Rodrigo Duterte and Bongbong Marcos.
