Israel’s Withering Democracy

Michael Koplow is worried about the impact in the US:

The boycott law has the capability to do real and lasting damage to Israel by eroding its standing with Americans. A law that severely limits political speech in this manner is redolent of authoritarianism, not an open and free democracy, and has been denounced as contrary to Israel's democratic nature by Israeli politicians, the Anti-Defamation League, American rabbis, and prominent Jewish media figures. Ordinary Americans may begin to take notice. With such establishment defense and national security figures as General David Petraeus and prominent analyst Anthony Cordesman questioning the costs and benefits of Israel as a strategic ally, Israel cannot afford to erode its liberal democratic credentials much further.

And yet it does. Because that is what domestic politics in an increasingly religious and illiberal Israel demand. The only thing you can depend on: the American Jewish Establishment will always look the other way.