One of the advantages of growing older is that you accumulate something called "historic memory," which basically means you've been around long enough to recall more than younger folks.
My historic memory clicks on like an endlessly streaming TV series as I read these days about the new Israeli government led by Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, the most extreme right and most religious coalition since the establishment of the state of Israel. Having visited Israel pretty regularly for over four decades, and lived there as a Middle East correspondent, this government represents something much different and much darker than anything I've seen there before.
Lots have been written about the serious threats to Israeli democracy posed by Bibi's plan to gut the power of the independent judiciary — by enabling the Knesset (Israel's parliament) to overturn any Supreme Court decision by a majority of one vote. That might enable Bibi to escape corruption charges and please his religious nationalist allies who want to cut rights for women, LGBTQ people, and minorities.
