J. Patrick Henry

     If you've been following recent events in Israel, in which a religious right wing has taken control of the government, relying on an indicted and desperate Prime Minister to further its anti-democratic aims, one can't avoid comparing it to the current situation in the U.S.
 
     Bibi Netanyahu, the longest serving Prime Minister in Israel's history, was indicted on a variety of corruption charges and then struck a deal with the hard right, religious fanatics in the Knesset, Israel's equivalent of a parliament. In exchange for assuring that religious Jews would not be subject to taxes or mandatory military service, and that Jewish settlers could continue to occupy Palestinian lands, he is seeking to limit the judiciary's power to prosecute him.  In doing so, he is turning Israel from a secular, democratic society into a religious, autocratic one, not unlike its Middle Eastern neighbors: Iran, Saudi Arabia and others.
 
     Looking at current events in the U.S., one cannot help but be struck by how much what hard right, religious Trump/DeSantis supporters are seeking to do matches what is happening in Israel.
 
     I continue to place my faith in the democratic protestors in Israel to save their country from this right wing coup.  Unfortunately, I don't have the same confidence that our situation will be resolved in favor of democracy.
 
     Unlike the 1960s, when I and my contemporaries tried our best to stop an immoral war, one that took the lives of a million Vietnamese and 50,000 mostly poor and uneducated U.S. soldiers (the rich & middle class did not pay much of a price), I doubt that citizens of this country have the balls to stand up to the religious, white nationalists, and protect us from the autocratic government that the Trump/DeSantis coalition is seeking to create.