In yet another effort to attack Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to implement judicial reform to Israel’s leftist judiciary, which has a stranglehold over government policies, The New York Times gushed over a radical activist opposing Netanyahu, calling her “the face of the protests.”
The New York Times article was devoted to Dr. Shikma Bressler, a professor at the Weizmann Institute. It spoke of Bressler sitting at a table in a café when “a young waitress rushed over, gushing at her in admiration,” and an older couple at the next table looking at her “with tears in their eyes,” as the wife told Bressler, “You are our hope,” while the husband breathed, “She’s an honest, brave and genuine leader.”
“Dr. Bressler sealed her status as a symbol of the protest movement last month when she led a miles-long column of demonstrators on a multi-day march to the hills of Jerusalem from coastal Tel Aviv,” The Times wrote, adding breathlessly, “It evoked a biblical pilgrimage,”
Yet Bressler, the co-founder of the “Black Flag Protests,” who stated of the current situation, “It’s rare that you recognize you are in a real-time historical moment,” is a radical who has opposed Netanyahu for years, leading a large black-shirt militia in front of the Israeli Supreme Court in April 2020 yelling “Democracy!”
אפריל 2020
שקמה ברסלר מפקדת על מליציית החולצות השחורות בצעקות "ד-מו-קר-טיה"זו לא הרפורמה, טמבל
זה רל"בוזו לא דמוקרטיה, טמבל
זו הפיכה צבאיתמה אתם עוד צריכים?!? pic.twitter.com/UO8EUNPKyS
— ארבלאו צייד הטונות 🇵🇹 (@arbelaue) August 3, 2023
In mid-June, Channel 14’s political correspondent Motti Kastel revealed messages from a secret WhatsApp group that included former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, former Chiefs of Staff Dan Halutz and Bogie Ya’alon, Crime Minister (activist group) founder Yishai Hadas, and founders of the Black Flags activist group. The group discussed how to revive the faltering protests, The Jewish Press reported.
In July 2020, Barak — who has opposed Netanyahu’s effort at judicial reform in 2023 and has been leading the leftist coalition against Netanyahu for years, led a video conference in which he spoke of his plans to topple Netanyahu, long before the current strong right-wing coalition had the power they have today.
Barak spoke of Netanyahu “killing the Knesset,” “the defacto surrender of the legislative branch to the executive,” and referred to Netanyahu as a “dictator.” He compared Netanyahu’s government to the right-wing governments of Hungary and Poland.”
“The fall of Bibi will in any case be an important step,” he said, adding, “Democrats, it’s not leftists, it’s a better definition,” and saying when someone asked, “What are you?’ his preferred answer would be, “I’m a democrat, and what about you? Aren’t you?”
“As soon as the police violence, even if it seems to the police to be justified, causes irreversible damage to the citizens, it only increases the protest,” he asserted.
Israeli Minister Galit Distal stated:
I assume that many of you have already been exposed to the video of Ehud Barak from three years ago detailing his master plan in front of a camera:
Deliberately ignite civil disobedience.
Create a false representation of a danger to Israeli democracy, because it is effective, it speaks to everyone, it is catchy, and it is the only fuel that can ignite a civil war.
Invest a lot of money in it, including buying wholesale flags.
To reach a situation where there will be floating corpses of Jews slaughtered by other Jews in the river.
Kick out Netanyahu and make Ehud Barak prime minister because only he can save the situation.
In late July, Israel Transportation Minister Miri Regev wrote Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, demanding that Barak and Forum 555 be investigated on suspicion of “criminal gathering, civil disobedience, and an attempted coup d’état.”