Opinion: Israel’s ‘sharp power’ manipulation threatens democratic allies

In 2023, many Israelis protested efforts by Netanyahu’s government to pass legislation that would have undermined the country’s judiciary and democratic principles. (The plans only ended at the outbreak of the October 2023 Israel-Hamas war.) But Israel’s antidemocratic behavior goes back at least a decade. And the most salient developments have been not in domestic legislation but in foreign policy, where successive Netanyahu governments have deployed a growing arsenal of “sharp power” techniques against Israel’s closest democratic allies.