https://www.jns.org/opposition-rhetoric-impedes-compromise-on-judicial-reform/
The opposition rhetoric being heaped on the Netanyahu government’s judicial reform plan kicked up a notch on Monday. Public figures spoke of fighting in the streets, moving to a new, warlike stage, and restoring Israel’s democracy through bloodshed. The extreme discourse is making it much harder to conduct a rational dialogue, analysts told JNS.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai made headlines on Monday when he said that countries become dictatorships through the democratic process but “do not become democratic again except through bloodshed.” Vying with Huldai was former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Nodding toward the Knesset walls, he said, “It’s good to see 100,000 people here, but that’s not what will lead the real fight. The real fight will break through these fences and take us into a real war.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid Party told an estimated 60,000 protesters at the Knesset on Monday that “a corrupt extremist government wants to destroy the country at record speed.”
National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz told the crowd that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “destroying Israeli society from within.”
Noteworthy is that these are all mainstream leaders, not fringe elements.
Netanyahu on Monday called on the opposition to lower the flames following the protest outside the Knesset and a tempestuous Knesset committee meeting, in which opposition members jumped on tables and had to be forcibly expelled.