Dan Nexon: Israel under Netanyahu. — Subium • Bluesky web client

Israel under Netanyahu.

Comparativists: what’s the closest national model for what Trump & Reps are trying to do for US authoritarianism? What cases are close in part or whole?

Except if Trump wins he'll be better positioned to succeed. Hungary's the model the U.S. authoritarian right generally has in mind.

Anyway, the reason I say Netanyahu is that Trump won't have the kind of supermajority that Orban had, and it'll be harder for him to get rid of independent media and other centers of power.

The parallels between the Israeli and U.S. media landscape are stronger, and I don't know the degree that Trump can create the kind of giant patronage network that's played such an important role in Hungary.

Hungary does not, AFAIK, have much in the way of right-wing violence-wielding extremists. Both Israel and the US do. So, again, while Hungary is the model for the authoritarian right, I think Israel might be a better comparison.

I don't don't claim to be well-informed about either country, but from complaints I see about each of them it seems that Orban's control reaches deeper into Hungary's society than Netanyahu's does in Israel: more personal and corrupt power over broadcasters and schools and employers etcetera.

Yeah. OTOH, the electoral manipulation in Hungary is a better analogy for what Trump and the GOP are up to.

The militia situation here is generally pretty confined to specific space and the targets are so far usually not other Israelis. There's obviously a domestic terrorism risk in Israel but I'd say the US has a deeper problem. The comparison isn't terrible but I'd tread cautiously with it.

US has its own version of the Haredim.

Interesting argument. The goal is clearly Orban or even a Putin type regime, but is it achievable in the next four years?

Also he's a criminal and being the leader is the only thing that can keep him out of prison. Applies to both!

🎤 boom!

Israel, to its credit, had demonstrators in Rabin Square every Saturday, and they didn't get shot by the IDF. In fact, many in the IDF sympathized with them. When Trump throws away Posse Comitatus, I'm not so sure we will be as lucky.

Except he would have the judiciary?

Yep.

In this context, I highly recommend reading @panievsky.bsky.social ‘s research on how liberal Israeli journalists’ professional norms were weaponized against them and came to serve populism. openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/31....

City Research Online - Covering Populist Media Criticism: When Journalists' Professional Norms Turn Against Them openaccess.city.ac.uk

Netanyahu always does the most cynical, slimy possible move that might benefit him personally even slightly and incredibly temporarily, no matter the horrific costs to others and long-term structural damage to the nation and institutions entrusted to him. But I don't know this is a good parallel?

However awful Netanyahu is, despite all the ways he makes his nation and its entire region unjust and unsustainable, I don't know that using him as an example really captures how corrupt a country Trumpists want to construct, the damage they envision to schools and civil society and the environment.

The parliament-PM system has been an obstacle to Netanyahu as far as personalist power, IMO

LMK what you think when I finish the thread.

Indeed. Gentle readers may review e.g. www.npr.org/2024/06/27/n...

West Bank economy under threat as Israel sidelines the Palestinian Authoritywww.npr.org Israel's far-right finance minister's economic policies have the potential to collapse the Palestinian Authority and cause fiscal chaos in the West Bank.

But to be fair Israel's Supreme Court actually did it's job. Unlike our corrupt Court.

also Orban in hungary- the right really loves him

Trump is like a cheap, bland imitation of Silvio Berlusconi. He’s Wal-Berlusconi. He’s Kirkland Signature Berlusconi.

Hungary’s Orban

Germany under Hitler

Israel was already far more of a theocracy than the US ever was.

Hungary under Orban

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