Interesting article on what has happened in Israel under the current coalition government.
The Terrorists' Secret Advantage Was Israel's 'Idiocracy' | Opinion
... The country of 10 million boasts stellar achievements. It hoovers in Nobel Prizes and ships out
Netflix hits. In 2021 its innovative tech sector attracted venture capital at about half the level of all of Europe – with a population 40 times smaller. In 2022, it boasted a higher per capita GDP than Germany, Britain, or France. And yet that same year it succumbed to total idiocracy: Israelis handed power to a motley crew that lined up behind Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, then and now facing trial for bribery.
In the government that resulted, as in the Mike Judge film, the only qualification appeared to be incompetence.
The finance ministry was handed to a religious fanatic who believes the economy should be run by the laws of the Torah, and for good measure calls himself a "proud homophobe" and wants to segregate Jews and Arabs in maternity wards. Since his main goal is oppression of the Palestinians, he was also put in charge of the West Bank, as if Israel had no interest in keeping that front quiet.
A leading rabble-rouser who boasts of multiple convictions, including for supporting terror groups, was awarded his least suitable station in the world: national security minister. Another extremist who hates the media was made communications minister. And the country's leading enemy of the rule of law was made minister of justice.
The coalition immediately started to wreck the place. Unprecedented sums were funneled to fervently religious schools that refuse to teach students math, science, English, and world history. And more than 200 laws were tabled to wipe out judicial overview of the government, including one that would have allowed the coalition to bar the opposition from running for office.
The Israelis who account for almost the entirety of the GDP have been protesting all year. Many warned that the Putinization effort created such toxic divisions that Israel's sworn enemies would be tempted to attack. These warnings, including by the country's leading past and present security chiefs, were ignored. Critics—from combat pilots to startup CEOs—were invited to leave the country by "Cabinet members" who might struggle to find China on the map. The currency fell by 20 percent, but jubilant disdain for the "elites" drowned out all else, a surefire sign of idiocracy at work.
The contours of idiocracy are coming into view as populist politicians all over the world are elevated by a fashion for disdaining experts, "elites," and education.