Vivian Bercovici: After three years of war, exhausted Israelis head to the polls next week

With less than one week before the Israeli election, 30 per cent of eligible voters say they are “undecided.” After three years of war and horror, many Israelis are anxious and depleted.

Even before October 7, the coalition government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had shaken the country to its core. The “judicial reform” policy that was being rammed through the Knesset sparked months of unprecedented civil discord and disobedience. Netanyahu’s coalition partners were determined to re-imagine the judiciary and quasi-constitutional framework of the country in a manner that would give the elected representatives in the Knesset absolute control over all branches of government and, tellingly, the judiciary.

Maintaining an independent judiciary and legal system is a fundamental feature of a liberal democracy. The Netanyahu government disparages “the system” as having been captured by “elite,” leftist interests — a Tel Aviv-based club that was aligned with an entrenched and nefarious deep state. Those included in this cabal were impressive: all living and former Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) chiefs of staff, heads of the Shin Bet, many senior Mossad officials, governors of the Bank of Israel, CEOs of key tech enterprises and leadership of all major banks. This was not a bunch of kooks.

And who supported judicial reform? Netanyahu’s hawkish Minister of Justice Yariv Levin and key coalition partners, including the ultra-orthodox Haredi parties. The Haredim cared about one thing; enshrining in law that all ultra-orthodox males studying full-time in a religious institution should be exempt from serving in the IDF — for all time.

And then came October 7.

Fleetingly, there was some hope that the Haredim would rise to the occasion and finally show up at IDF draft offices to do their part. The Hamas massacre was more than a war. It exposed the systemic dysfunction permeating key national institutions. Israel was fighting an existential war with its enemies, but also a domestic war with institutions that had become morally corrupt, arrogant and unable to fulfill their most basic promise. Protect the citizens. Leave no one behind.

There are two issues that are priorities for the majority of Israelis in this election: the draft and the creation of a State Commission of Inquiry into the October 7 massacre. Historically, significant national issues and events have been handed to a state commission of Inquiry to adjudicate and make recommendations. This is what happened almost immediately after the conclusion of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when Israel was attacked by Jordan, Syria and Egypt and nearly annihilated. Even though the commission found that then-prime minister Golda Meir bore no direct responsibility, Meir chose to resign. She believed that honour precluded any other outcome. And that made her responsible and accountable to the people.

Meir’s resignation must have been on Netanyahu’s mind when he met with his top military and security advisers several days before October 7. As the meeting participants were leaving, Netanyahu quipped, “I do not want to end up like Golda.”

For the three years since October 7, Netanyahu has refused to convene an inquiry. It would be nothing more than a witch-hunt with a pre-determined outcome, he has said many times, because the judiciary is a highly politicized anti-government left-wing institution. His government has — unprecedentedly — refused to recognize the current president of the Israeli Supreme Court, because he assumed his position according to long-established rules of succession (which judicial reform would have ended).

And the way things have worked in Israel since 1968 — for every one of the 20 state commissions of inquiry convened — the prime minister tasks the Supreme Court President with selecting the Commission members who are entrusted, by law, to conduct the proceedings independently. It is a quasi-judicial body — with powers to subpoena, receive testimony under oath and issue recommendations. All work of a Commission of Inquiry is to be conducted in an independent manner, meaning — with no government or political interference or involvement.

This possibility, no doubt, offends Netanyahu. He will not likely submit to the whims of the leftists who want to bring him down. He will, however, agree to an inquiry that he controls by appointing all members while defining its scope. Hardly independent.

Netanyahu has publicly and aggressively assigned blame for October 7 to the IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi, head of Shin Bet Ronen Bar, senior IDF officials and others. But he accepts no responsibility, claiming that his key advisers did not brief him on critical realities. And the worst claim: they did not wake him up early enough on the morning of October 7. Had they done so, he asserted recently, the massacre would have been averted.

In a recent poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, 71 per cent of Jewish Israelis believe that the implementation of a universal draft and holding of a state commission of inquiry are critical issues in this election. Netanyahu has steadfastly to implement either one.

So why are so many voters still undecided? Because it is increasingly unclear which party leaders may compromise with the ultra-orthodox Haredim in order to negotiate a majority government. And that uncertainty keeps Netanyahu on life support, in spite of the fact that 72 per cent of Israelis believe that he should take responsibility for October 7 and resign — immediately.

National Post