Regimes do not change in a single day. They erode—clause by clause, law by law—until the public grows accustomed to it. The disaster of October 7 was only the climax of a long process of rule by fear, incitement, and evasion of responsibility. Without real civic pressure—without refusing to play along—there will be no democracy left to save.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “A special state commission of inquiry, a commission equally balanced between opposition and coalition, is the correct way to uncover the truth.”

There are disasters that strike without warning, and there are disasters built slowly, brick by brick, while those responsible stand before us, speak to us, promise, explain—and we get used to it. The disaster we are living through now belongs to the second kind. It did not fall from the sky. It was not born in a single day, nor on October 7. It is the product of a long, stubborn, almost systematic process of controlled dismantling: of institutions, of norms, of truth, of accountability.

It did not surprise me. From the moment this man arrived here, in the late 1980s, after reinventing himself—biographically and politically—it was clear to me that he was not just another conventional right-wing politician, someone with whom one could debate or disagree. From the moment Benjamin Netanyahu returned from the United States, having already learned how American democracy works from the inside—and how it can be manipulated—it was evident that he brought something entirely different with him: a governing worldview that does not commit to democracy, but rather uses democracy for its own ends.

Even then, the pattern was visible: brilliant rhetoric, flawless English, a rare talent for framing reality—and above all, a deep understanding of the most primal fears of the Israeli public. Not fear as a fleeting event, but fear as a permanent state of mind. Not a concrete threat, but a........

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