Israeli protesters: ‘Traitors’ and ‘anarchists’ or best and brightest?

In years past, Israel’s long-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, publicly took great pride in his country’s growing global stature, ascribing it to two main pillars: military power, as embodied in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and the technological innovation that gave the country a cherished nickname, “Startup Nation.”

Yet just over two months into his sixth term in office, Mr. Netanyahu faces a widespread revolt from precisely those segments of Israeli society.

Elite combat veterans and high-tech workers have become pivotal, and highly visible, members of the pro-democracy movement protesting against his government’s controversial plan to “reform” the country’s judicial system and undermine any check on executive power.

IDF reservists and the technology sector, widely regarded as among the best and brightest Israeli society has to offer, are not reflexive protesters. For many this is their first time signing petitions and taking to the streets, let alone refusing military call-ups in a country where such service is considered sacred.

Yet the current danger, as they see it, to Israeli democracy is existential and requires unprecedented measures.

Protest leaders and political analysts are clear-eyed that demonstrations that consistently have drawn hundreds of thousands of people nationwide for 10 straight weeks may not impress Mr. Netanyahu or his hard-right religious-nationalist coalition partners. But threatened economic and military damage may be the only leverage that can force him to back down from the legislation being rushed through parliament.

On Thursday, protests and strikes took place in more than 100 locales across the country in a self-styled “National Day of Resistance” that even disrupted the visit of U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. He had to meet with Mr. Netanyahu at the airport due to mass highway disruptions that also forced the Israeli leader to arrive by helicopter. 

“Spreading like wildfire”

For many in Israel, the idea of reservists refusing military service is the most emotionally wrenching.

“For me and other protesters, the contract with the state was that it be Jewish and democratic, but the intent by this government is to turn it into Jewish only,” says Lt. Col. O., a veteran officer in a classified artillery unit who requested anonymity due to his sensitive military service and leadership in the reservist protest.

Lt. Col. O., who still volunteers for duty, helped organize the initial petition from his unit, which so far has garnered more than 1,000 signatures. Their sole request was that the government halt its legislative blitz and enter into real negotiations.

Countless other groupings of reservist protesters have sprouted up in recent weeks, totaling thousands of soldiers and officers, ranging from special forces commandos to cyber hackers, intelligence analysts to drone operators, and counter-terror operatives to combat pilots.

“We don’t have to serve in the reserves, it’s on a volunteer basis,” Lt. Col. O. explains, noting that only 1% of the population regularly does so. “But there was always faith that what we were doing was important, and that the country was worth it.”

In the most high-profile case so far, nearly an entire F-15 fighter jet reserve squadron declared early this week that it would boycott an upcoming training day. After entreaties by senior officers, the combat pilots arrived on base for a “dialogue” on the political crisis.

“What you’re seeing is the start of the process, and for the vast majority it’s not active refusal – yet,” says Amos Harel, defense analyst at the Haaretz daily. “It’s conditional: They’re saying that in future if these judicial ‘reforms’ are passed, then we will stop reporting for reserve duty.”

According to Mr. Harel, nothing on this scale has ever occurred among Israel’s citizen soldiers. “And it’s spreading like wildfire,” he adds.

The Air Force in particular is severely dependent on reservists, analysts say, with combat pilots and navigators still conducting active operations every week throughout the Middle East.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy took the unprecedented step of meeting with Mr. Netanyahu this week to “express his concerns regarding the implications of reservists not reporting for duty,” according to one security source. Lt. Gen. Halevy has also met with several groups of reservists in recent days, saying that the security of the state rested with them and their ilk and that “refusal is a ‘red line.’ It should not be in the military protocol.”

He also condemned comments attacking the reservists as “traitors,” including by government ministers.

“Conditional pilots are not patriots. Not the salt of the earth. Not Zionists. Not the best of our boys,” Public Diplomacy Minister Galit Distel Atbaryan tweeted. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi added, “The Jewish people will manage without you and you can go to Hell. The reform will move forward and advance.”

If the judicial overhaul is passed according to the government’s schedule, then as soon as next month the vast majority of reservist air crews will refuse to report for duty, according to Haaretz’s Mr. Harel.

“If someone in the IDF thinks they’ll have a reserve army after these laws are passed, then they’re living in a fantasy,” says Lt. Col. O.

The tech “miracle”

Mr. Netanyahu himself has so far not shown any inclination of backing down, dismissing the protesters as “anarchists,” even comparing them to rampaging Jewish settlers in the West Bank who burned homes in a Palestinian village last week. Mr. Netanyahu’s son and close adviser, Yair, even called the protest movement “domestic terrorism” and compared the tech sector to “Bolsheviks” leeching off the state.

In truth, the tech industry has been a main engine for Israel’s economic “miracle.” Just 10% of the national workforce, it accounts for over 40% of all exports, a quarter of all taxes, and some 15% of GDP, according to government figures.

Now an overwhelming proportion of that industry is rebelling, as tech CEOs and firms take a leading and very public role in the anti-government protest, from funding demonstrations to erecting massive billboards, and in several high-profile cases even moving billions of dollars out of the country.

Tech analysts and executives have laid out a litany of concerns if the judicial overhaul comes to pass, including the courts’ abilities to uphold property rights and the civil liberties of minority groups like women, LGBTQ people, and Arab Israelis.

Many question whether, in a radically altered Israel, highly mobile tech workers will even want to stay here and raise families. The political upheaval has already created doubts in the minds of many global investors.

“Investors are very worried, and whenever there’s uncertainty, they stop to assess. In the case of Israel right now they’re saying, ‘Let’s wait,’” says one tech CEO prominent in the protest movement, asking for anonymity so as not to harm investor relations.

Another tech executive, Ohad, who has been present at recent demonstrations, is even more blunt: Tech in Israel has to look outward due to the small size of the local market. “It can’t exist as a ‘stand-alone industry,’” he says.

“It’s a global world, and the world won’t do business with a dictatorial state,” he adds. “The fear is that they’ll put Israel onto a blacklist, with sanctions. We’re not too far away from that in our current situation.”

Protesting, but still serving

Ohad, who also requested anonymity so as not to identify his firm, says there were “lots of layers of idiocy [on the part of the government] that leads to serious concerns” throughout the entire industry.

“You saw me and my colleagues last week demonstrating on a work day. The protest definitely represents how the sector feels.”

Interestingly, Ohad, a reservist in the IDF Intelligence Branch Special Operations Division, refused to sign the unit’s petition threatening to boycott duty.

“I’ll go to reserve duty if called,” he says. “You’re not defending a specific government or parliament, you’re defending the nation, regardless of which idiot sits at the top.”

For those now out on the streets, it seems, there are still certain norms that remain intact, despite their genuine anger. Yet even for someone like Ohad – a father of three, a law-abiding and patriotic citizen, an Israeli success story – those lines may be eroding.

“I’m not a big student of history, but it seems that the only protests that succeeded in the past are those that got out of control. The masses here aren’t going back home, and yet the government so far doesn’t even see us, even after weeks of protest. They haven’t stopped,” he says.

“I’m not an anarchist like they say, but at a certain point you can’t play by normal rules anymore.”