Why is the Western media not talking about the anti-govt protests in Israel?

Iran and Israel may be the two worst enemies in the Middle East. Yet they have, in the last month of 2017, witnessed a common––and somewhat unusual––type of street protests by their own citizens. The demonstrators in both the countries urged their respective governments not to use the alibi of external enemies to shift attention from the problems within. So far 15 people, including a police official, have been killed in Iranian protests.

While protests in cities like Mashad, Kermanshah, Tehran, etc. got widespread coverage in the global media, the one in Israel––no less unique in character––received less space for obvious reasons.

US President Donald Trump was quick to tweet in favour of protestors in Iran, prompting its President Hassan Rouhani to say: “Anyone who calls the Iranian people terrorists does not have the right to sympathize with the people.”

He, however, in a statement on December 31, conceded, “Iran is a free nation, and according to the constitutional laws, the people have the right to express their criticism and protest.”

But, Rouhani said that the aim of these protests should be to improve the situation in the country and people’s lives.

In Iran, people opposed to spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei are demanding the leadership to withdraw from Syria and Yemen, and concentrate on the condition of the people within the country.

Years of sanctions have been blamed for the present condition in Iran.

On the other hand, in Israel, people took to streets on all Saturdays of December in cities like Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa to protest rampant corruption in the country, especially those cases involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On December 23, rallies in three cities saw the participation of more than 10,000 people, including of many rightist supporters of the ruling Likud Party.

Strangely, while speaking at the Jerusalem rally, former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said that corruption “is a greater danger [to Israel] than the Iranian threat, Hezbollah, Hamas, or the Islamic State.”

This was something extremely surprising from an Israeli former minister, who had served as the Chief of the Staff of Israeli Defence Forces. In about 38 years of his life in the army, he had fought Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Palestinians––besides taking part in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and Lebanese invasion during the early 1980s. As late as May 20, 2016, he was the defence minister in Netanyahu’s own cabinet.

Obviously, President Trump was not expected to tweet on such an outburst against good friend Netanyahu by latter’s own former colleague.

In fact, the anti-corruption demonstrations began in 2016 on a much smaller scale in the hometown of Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit. The protests were about his alleged foot-dragging in several corruption investigations against Netanyahu.

By the time these demonstrations reached Tel Aviv on December 2, 2017, (as well as Jerusalem and Haifa) the agenda had also widened. The target now is Netanyahu and his government.

Ironically, all this was happening when the global media was more busy highlighting the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by President Trump, a move which Netanyahu tried to politically capitalize.

The message of the developments in Iran and Israel is that external enemies can no longer be used to prolong one's stay in power. The demonstrations in Israel might not have got much international publicity, but it is creating problems for Netanyahu and exposing the deepening divide within the country.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu, on New Year’s Day, backed the demonstrators in Iran.