Israel is no longer a liberal democracy. As Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government took office on Dec. 29, its illiberalism was evident. No longer a matter for debate or polite embarrassment, the contempt for liberal ideas brings disparate factions together: against the media and intellectuals and increasingly against the old Western-inspired Israeli political system and constitution.
New Minister Bezalel Smotrich, for example, calls gay pride parades “worse than bestiality” and in 2017 published a political manifesto detailing how
