Democracy rests on a simple principle: governments are chosen by voters and removed by voters.

Increasingly, however, political battles are being fought through another avenue. When opponents cannot be defeated at the ballot box, they are pursued through prosecutors, commissions, tribunals and courts. Elections become only one front in a broader struggle for power.

Call it lawfare. Call it the judicialisation of politics. Whatever the label, the trend is becoming impossible to ignore.

Israel provides perhaps the clearest example.

For more than six years, Benjamin Netanyahu has governed under the shadow of criminal proceedings that have transformed Israeli politics. Investigations that began under former State Attorney Shai Nitzan eventually led former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to approve an indictment. Since then, the case has continued through years of courtroom proceedings.

Netanyahu’s supporters argue that the charges rely on unprecedented legal theories, particularly the claim that favourable media coverage can amount to bribery. They contend that political conduct previously considered part of democratic competition has been criminalised. His critics argue that no public official, regardless of popularity or position, should be above the law.

The courts will ultimately decide the legal merits.

The political consequences, however, are already evident.

Israel experienced repeated elections, prolonged uncertainty and years of predictions that Netanyahu’s political career was finished. Yet voters repeatedly returned him to power.

Again and again, the electorate delivered its verdict.

Again and again, the legal process continued.

For many Israelis, this created the perception that when a leader could not be removed by voters, other institutions were being used to achieve the same outcome.

That perception is politically significant, regardless of one’s view of Netanyahu.

Israel also demonstrates the broader consequences of prolonged political warfare. Years of legal battles, constitutional disputes and mass protests contributed to one of the most divided periods in the country’s modern........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)