Rightwing Assault On Israeli Courts And Democracy. Steve Williamson and Karen McClelland welcome Hadar Susskind, President and CEO of Americans for Peace Now.
When asked about the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he replies, “I’ll tell you this: It’s a very complicated question. I think a lot of people are having doubts about whether that is possible, which even the current Israeli leadership and given the current Palestinian leadership there’s a perfectly logical set of doubts. I still do believe it’s the best, most likely answer.” But he says, “I don’t really see any Israeli government that would do what in their view would be giving up the entirety of the territory.”
Addressing the massive public demonstrations against the Netanyahu-led government, Susskind notes that Israel is experiencing a judicial coup in which the rightwing government is trying to take away the one check on executive power. It began after Netanyahu appointed a convicted felon as Finance Minister and the Supreme Court said you can’t do that because there is a law that says convicted felons cannot serve as cabinet members.
Susskind says, “It [Israel] has been a democracy – flawed like others. But this change around the Supreme Court is threatening that. And, Stephen, as you said, you can’t have democracy with occupation. It has never been a full-on perfect democracy because there are millions of Palestinians living under occupation. Not as citizens yet who do not have basic rights.”