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That makes the Israeli Knesset an exceedingly weak check on government power, more so than in other parliamentary systems that have direct election of MPs or open-list systems where voters pick the line-up on election day.
That’s especially true in recent years with the decline of the party primary. Three decades ago, most MKs in most of the larger parties were elected by party members in a primary election, granting them a political foundation from which they could challenge and rein in party leaders, and thus the government. Across the center and left, that’s no longer true.
The government has spent over two months pushing legislation to radically weaken the judiciary that, some on the right now claim, it never meant to pass in so extreme a form. With half the country convinced it’s under assault, growing ranks of reservists beginning to refuse to serve and economic harm from the overhaul already reaching into the billions, that old formula — “first you win, then you do damage control” — no longer fits the situation. The damage is becoming too great.
Haredi Shas was always illiberal and enamored with charismatic leadership. The lawmakers of Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism have never hidden their illiberal predilections. But Likud was once a rowdy and unruly party with multiple power centers, unpredictable primaries and strong institutions that hosted serious debates on ideology and legislation, a party as proud of its liberalism as its nationalism.
That old, boisterous Likud has now imploded into something else, something loyal, unquestioning, eerily docile, free of dissenters or debates, that has even many supporters of judicial reform worried that a coalition with such a political culture at its heart might seek to do the same with the country.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-implosion-of-israels-ruling-party/