My title will shock no one and seem quite frighteningly reasonable to anyone paying attention to world politics, the international type but also some of the domestic political conflicts. There seems to be trouble all over the place, Yes, I know that’ true pretty much all the time, but it does look worse to me than usual.

For an article by retired Gen Dan Leaf, a long time and one-time very high-ranking officer among our senior military leaders who make strategic decisions, see today’s(Mar 28) NYT. His column suggests that we try to make a formal peace with North Korea. The 1953 truce is still in effect with no genuine treaty ending the war. There has never been a formal treaty. His predictions are terrible and his facts and logic seem unassailable. You might want to read it–well maybe “should” is better than “want to.” Perhaps more on that later or, more likely, another column.

Much as I regret the North Korean threat and all the others, I think the most immediate thing–or at least an immediate thing- the administration should be looking at is Israel. Maybe looking at it is about all the US can do now, but at least let’s do that. Maybe some form of useful action will become clear.

As you likely know there was what might be an important step–at least a small one, anyway–yesterday. PM Netanyahu put a hold on his plan to strip the Supreme Court of most of its power(a 1-vote override in the Knisset would do it). He now says that he’s willing to let the legal reform bill go ahead without that provision. He will put that one off for the time being. There was no pledge to let it go, however, no indication that it is not his policy,

This has led to a large number of expressed opinions ranging from famous columnists to people interviewed on the street. I’ve looked at a number of opinions and to give you an idea of what’s going on and what I think, I have chosen to explore Tam Bateman’s BBC report. I do not know Bateman’s work, but I respect the BBC as one of the most competent and honest news organizations out there..

It appears to him that the PM’s speech has been a temporary success. But Bateman also seems to have doubts how long the “peace” will last. One thing the PM succeeded in doing was to divide, at least temporarily, the opposition(usually a good move in any political conflict). The huge number of Israelis who took to the streets(not an unknown action but somewhat unusual there) was split , more or less into two groups– the larger and presumably more responsible opposition parties who are taking a cautiously optimistic stance, and the more noisy demonstrators who are denouncing the speech and do not trust its promises to be anything but a political maneuver. Protests may continue.

But Bateman is seriously concerned that mot of the most bitterly divied Israelis are–well, still divided. On things such as relious and government power, restrictions on the latter, and trying to agree on the Palestinians, there is still deep division.

The roots of this are in the fact that Netanyahu returned to power about 3 months ago with a legal issue hanging over him and, more importantly, only after making agreements with some right wing leaders whom his Likud party had not been willing to deal with before. This time they had no choice if they were to get the 61 Knesset seats they needed to form a government. This pushed a lot of more liberal and/or secularist citizens into a feeling that Israel was heading toward being a theocracy. While perhaps an unfounded concern, this would be, if it proved to be true, a powerful disincentive for may on the left, especially the secularists, to cooperate.

Possibly the most ominous thing in Bateman’s report is that security chiefs reported to the PM that many in the military reserves were deeply opposed to his plans and that the functioning of the Israeli Defense Forces might be affected. This is, so far as I know, next to unheard of in Israeli politics. I think the armed forces have never before had their loyalty or ability to defend Israel from its enemies questioned.

It is now early afternoon on Mar 30 and roughly 2 days have passed since I finished writing the above paragraph. I have been researching on-line for half an hour or more and I do not see anything very hopeful to report. A large crowd, estimated by some at more than 30,000, has gathered at an Art Museum and they are threatening a march to an area used in recent months for demonstrations. These people are carrying signs indicating their support for Netanyahu and particularly for his judicial “reforms,” which we have seen(above)would negate much of the Supreme Court’s power. Many feel this would be a blow to Israeli democracy.

Among their stated complaints is one that contends that not to hand power over to the Knesset is anti-democratic. This is opposite of many opinions that see it as a step toward a legislative dictatorship or something akin to it. These latter opinions, admittedly more establishment, seem to make sense to me and also to most more moderate Israelis, as nearly as I am able to tell.

The same people are also saying that the legal cases against Netanyahu for corruption are strictly political, and charging that they are directly connected to his wishes to change the Supreme Court, the latter move presumably triggering the former as preventive or punishment or both. Adding to the trouble. a group of “religious”(presumably Orthodox)teenagers has joined in the demonstration with a particular point of their own. These teens are from Negev, the farthest south large city in Israel and one of its historic landmark places. They maintain that without the “reforms” they want to the Court, Negev itself will be taken over by the(Arab and Muslim) Bedouins and will cease to be Israeli.

All of this is complicated by the fact that the US and Israel have not been able to get together on this issue. President Biden said earlier this week that Netanyahu would not be invited to the White House in the near future and that the US was extremely concerned about the direction events in Israel were taking. Israelis responded with anger against their oldest ally, expressed in terms not usually heard in the past.

There is not, at present, very much the US can do except to remonstrate with the Israeli government. It should be pointed out to them that no one in the world of freedom(all of us who believe in individual rights and freedom of thought)is likely to be pleased by the plans they apparently still plan to carry out, perhaps in a somewhat limited form. Obviously Israel needs to find some policies regarding the West Bank, the Palestinians and the Supreme Court which will be supported by a respectable majority. And they need to use that majority to quieten the resonance of voices of anger and disunion in the country, and those who call for pretty much outright oppression of the Arab majority on the West Bank. Israeli governments have managed such things, sometimes barely, in the past. For the good of their honored nation and for the cause of peace in the Mideast and elsewhere, let us hope they can do it again.

It is now late morning on Mar 31 and I see and hear nothing new regarding this issue. Of course, the noise engendered by the Trump indictment is making everything else hard to hear. I will try to listen to both, but I will not delay finishing this thing up for the time being. There is a song familiar to those who know a certain kind of religious music, which bids us to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” This would likely be a good time.