On Sunday, September 3, 2000, a convoy of some one-thousand buses, cars and motorcycles followed Aryeh Deri from his home in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem to the Maasiyahu Prison in Ramleh. Outside the jailhouse, tens of thousands had gathered. They had come to vent their rage against the secular Ashkenazi elite, the justice system, and the heavy sentence their leader had received. To the makeshift Yeshiva they erected outside the prison, they gave the name Aryeh’s Roar. Within weeks, half a million people had visited the yeshiva. Some came to say a prayer, others wanted to voice their unheard pain. Had the second Intifada not erupted a month later, Aryeh’s Roar would have surely become a dangerous flashpoint between Israel’s feuding tribes.
Nineteen years later, in October 2019, Israel is marching, eyes-open-wide, toward a Netanyahu’s Roar. And Netanyahu’s Roar may become far more powerful than Aryeh’s Roar. It could engulf half of people of Israel. It could erect a wall of fire between the enlightened (in-their-own-eyes) tribes and the persecuted tribes. It could give rise to intense feelings of fury and loathing — and reopen the wounds of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. It could create a profound trauma that may eclipse those of the sinking of the Altalena, the assassination of Haim Arlosoroff and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. National unity, you say? Netanyahu’s Roar may plunge Israel into a maelstrom of provocation, incitement and divisiveness that will surpass even those we have witnessed over the last few years.
The nightmarish scenario of Netanyahu’s Roar may come to pass because Israel finds itself in a perilous triangle. On one side of this triangle is a national leader who has just garnered the votes of 2 million Israelis, and whose tenure in the prime minister’s office is longer than that of Ben Gurion’s. On the second side are serious allegations of bribery and breach of trust. And on the third is the contaminated environment in which the legal process of inquiry is taking place.
Israel is split in half. On the one hand, the Twitter-elite is applying enormous pressure to law enforcement in order to bring to Netanyahu’s conviction, come what may. The message is: lock him up, crush him, finish him. On the other, populist machinations threaten to demolish law enforcement if it does not work to exonerate Netanyahu completely. The message is: we’ve had it with attorneys, with judges, with a justice system that offers us no justice.
In these noxious circumstances, any decision reached by the attorney general will be seen as tainted. If Netanyahu is ousted by a legal, not political, process, a significant part of the public will feel that what has taken place is no less than a putsch. It will rise up against what it will see as an elitist coup. It will sound a roar so loud as to rock the very foundations of the Israeli democracy.
So the challenge facing Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and his team is unprecedented. Although everyone is meant to be equal before the law, in the case of a man who received the votes of two million citizens, the principle of clean hands — of moral unassailability — must be absolute. If Netanyahu pushed regulatory decisions that benefitted media mogul Shaul Elovitch to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, in exchange for positive coverage, the prosecution cannot blink. But if Netanyahu is the victim of selective enforcement, police fishing expeditions and ruthless investigative tactics — the prosecution cannot bury its head. This fateful decision cannot be taken according to the way the wind is blowing, or an inclination of heart. Justice must be done in a sealed, sterile room with zero tolerance for error or bias.
But that’s not enough. In order to prevent Netanyahu’s Roar of 2020, public discourse must change. Almost all of us love or hate Netanyahu. Very few are indifferent. That’s the man. He lights a fire and draws fire. But now we must set aside both love and hate. The possible criminal indictment of any man cannot be weighed lightly. And to indict a prime minister is to enter the holy of holies of democracy. There is no room for the inflamed discourse that often characterizes a conventional political contest. There cannot be even a semblance of predisposition or partiality. If Netanyahu is indicted — it must be clear to everyone that there was no lynch. If Netanyahu is not indicted — it must be clear to everyone that there was no circumvention of justice. While on most days, the Israeli public arena resembles a bubbling cauldron, now cooler heads must prevail. The flames must be lowered, impulses must be restrained. The legal process must be seen to take place as if in the core of a nuclear reactor: professional, precise, speckless. Without fear or favoritism. With great caution and dignity.
Sadly, the chances this will take place are slim. The horses are out of the gate, foaming at the mouth. The chariots of fire are jolting ahead. The Netanyahu era will probably not end in a glimmering twilight, but with an earthshaking roar.
