What Judgement Shall They Dread?

Although the government of the Righteous State remains manifestly above international law, it has suffered a setback in its attempt to declare itself above Israeli law as well. By a margin of one vote, the supreme court has thrown out the legislation passed six months ago which decreed Likudnik infallibility in matters of government decision-making. The opposition parties refused to take part in that vote and walked out of the Knesset, and mass protests followed. The government evidently hoped that such insubordination would be swept aside by the unprovoked, context-free and not at all convenient Hamas attacks on 7 October, and Likud has predictably invoked the need for everyone to fall into line as long as IDF soldiers are risking friendly fire while bombing Israeli hostages. Condemnation of the supreme court's lurch into the antisemitic trope of unrighteous legalism has not been immediately forthcoming; although Britain's leading liberal newspaper, which purged its leading political commentator over a fictitious reference to The Merchant of Venice, notes delicately that the supreme court is unelected.