Earth to Trumpers and all their enablers: This is what happens when you tear a country apart

[BeyondGeography]

Israelis Can No Longer Afford Vicious Infighting (gift link)

…Now many in Israel are asking, understandably, how did one of the best intelligence operations in the world fail to see the signs? One answer is that we tend to ignore details according to our preconception — which in this case was a misconception about what Hamas is and what its intentions really are. But this is just part of the story.

In the past five years, as Israel dissolved government after government and held divided election after divided election, and even more so in the past year since Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected prime minister, the nation has been busy tearing itself apart from within. The Jewish state seems to have forgotten its second role in the world, as a place that embodies the idea of Jewish solidarity. Israelis instead found themselves engaged in an all-out war — not against terrorists but against themselves.

Over the past nearly 40 weeks, as the battle over the judiciary overhaul surfaced, violently, old questions of identity and religious affiliation, as well as ethnicity, class and privilege, shook the populace. Is Israel more Jewish or more democratic? Many in Israel experienced real anxiety: The judiciary change, presented by the most right-wing government in the country’s history, seemed to threaten the liberal nature of their beloved country. They felt that they were fighting for the soul of the nation and that in this fight, all bets were off and nothing was sacred — including the once-untouchable idea of shirking reserve duty in the army. Despite the turmoil in the streets, the ruling coalition refused to accept the fact that with a slim majority, it could not enforce such big changes without consensus, plowing ahead with ever more anxiety-inducing policies day by day.

As a nation, Israelis acted as if we could afford the luxury of a vicious internal fight, the kind in which your political rival becomes your enemy. We let animosity, demagogy and the poisonous discourse of social media take over our society, rip apart the only Jewish army in the world. This is our tragedy. And it carries a lesson for other polarized democracies: There is someone out there waiting to gain from your self-made weakness. This someone is your enemy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/08/opinion/international-world/israel-hamas-attack.html?unlocked_article_code=4v6zGcgQLMdm-_rvwo6RxNdESvFfn0Y_JMcWp6AhEJ7LN3B5wzxlRu2LUxusUpGK0hHvKr2Bkyb_RiA_FWCWVmh4jt3YDs7o06u2XOXgtgmtdTERexwkBczuzI3apVGD5O5yaF3dUthwcYjd18koWfatgDiohN8-Ohs5AsRk0Vy4OpnH8lMyvzCViuW0vxiIkCtPPEGbSLkia6Ub9Ae5Eq-M5a1nA2rk5-1tHoSGLFwuqoAEsbr-dUrkWtcm6FJwoU5-xp5Nt80Yjl1gWiLiXNj552P3tcE2Gc_8gSCxdBRpfIINVrgz6XCmH2sobLzeB-uWjGkr2frUv6WK92KrDdj4lV_Cjpziqwci6sOkTanc&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

[KPN]

1. Key words: "Earth to Trumpers". It's hard to not be torn apart when a significant number

are actively trying to tear apart the country, wittingly or not.

[jaxexpat]

2. Very enlightened point of view. Groovy!

[onecaliberal]

3. Trump gave Israeli intelligence to iran through russia.

[roamer65]

4. +1000

[Irish_Dem]

5. The GOP and MAGAs want to destroy the US.

They hate Americans, the federal government, democracy.

[usonian]

6. Axios says that "judicial overhaul" and the resulting turmoil helped weaken Israel's military.

Repost.
https://democraticunderground.com/100218338778

Axios reports
https://www.axios.com/2023/10/07/hamas-attack-invasion-israel-death-toll-netanyahu

The big picture: The attack comes amid a deep political crisis in Israel over the Netanyahu government's judicial overhaul, which has weakened the country's military, economy and society.

Links to:
https://www.axios.com/2023/07/24/israel-judicial-overhaul-reform-explained#

Why it matters: The plan, which will weaken the Supreme Court and other democratic institutions, has faced opposition from some of Israel's closest allies, including the Biden administration, and it has already destabilized the country's economy and military.

We saw it here with attacks on the military and stuffing the court with stooges.

DON'T TELL THE TRUMPERS ABOUT THIS.
IT'S THEIR PLAN

[redqueen]

7. Yep they're doing the exact same thing here. nt