No to Netanyahu Israelis' defiance is a lesson for anyone who cares about democracy

Beware the strongman leader who fears prison. Donald Trump is running for president in part because he sees a return to the White House as a literal get-out-of-jail-free card: reinstalled in the Oval Office, he would be able to pardon himself for the mounting pile of serious federal crimes for which he is indicted. His legal strategy is his political strategy.

- Jonathan Freedland

But the exemplar of the phenomenon is the man who was Trumpian before Trump: the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. It is Netanyahu - and the war he is waging against his own country - whom all those who care about the wider future of democracy should be watching. For Israel has become the test case in the global fight against ultranationalist populism.

Netanyahu's coalition passed a law last month curbing the powers of Israel's judiciary. No longer will the supreme court be able to block the government from taking action that judges deem "extremely unreasonable". That matters, because in Israel the courts are pretty well the only restraint on government power: there is no second chamber, no established constitution. And last month's vote was merely the first in a series of moves designed to gut the power of the judiciary: opponents, who have been out on the streets in huge numbers since January, call it a "judicial coup".