In this week’s episode of Caroline Glick’s “Mideast News Hour,” Glick is joined by historian Gadi Taub for a discussion on Sunday’s successful Jerusalem Day “Flag Parade.”
The event went off despite the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Israeli government, and after being cancelled by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government last year in the face of mass Arab Israeli violence and Hamas’s missile offensive.
Before the parade, there were warnings by Hamas and Hezbollah that they would attack Israel for allowing its citizens to march through the streets of Jerusalem and celebrate its reunification. But as Glick puts it, “the warnings that preceded the parade were so dark and cataclysmic that it was hard to avoid the conclusion that they were asking [to be attacked]. It was very strange.”
Glick and Taub talk about the increasingly palpable atmosphere of rebellion among Arab Israelis in the face of Israel’s elites, who refuse to defend the country. As Taub put it, “If you look at the project of the new [elites], what they really mean when they say ‘populism’ is that they hate the populace. That’s the heart of it.”
What hangs in the balance for Israeli democracy?
The conversation then moves to the state of Netanyahu’s ongoing trial for bribery.
Over the past six months, the prosecution has brought some 15 witnesses to the stand to make its case that Netanyahu received bribes for regulatory favors. First the claim of bribery fell apart. And over the past month, the claim that he provided regulatory favors has fallen apart.
Taub and Glick summarize the state of play in the trial and what now hangs in the balance for Israeli democracy and the criminal justice system.
