Mass protests are back in style

When the Soviet Union began breaking up there were huge, huge protests from people desperate to see the end of Moscow's tyranny. Leaders who had always looked supremely in charge fell by the wayside. Then came the so-called Arab Spring when protests spread like apocalyptic fires across the Middle East and North Africa, beginning in Tunisia, and once again autocratic leaders who theught they were safe from overthrow were overthrown. Now we have mass protests in Israel and France. Will the leaders of these countries also be forced out? In Israel, surely this is possible. The protests over Binyamin Netanyahu's determination to reduce the role of the Supreme Court to give the Tel Aviv government more power have been going on for 11 weeks. The people of Israel are fearful that democracy itself is at risk if the government is not properly held to account by the courts. These protesters are not wild revolutionaries.They are the opposite. They are demonstrating for their country's future and come from all walks of life, including the military. Netanyahu who won reelection only by forging a coalition with the most extreme and most religious parties, is acting tough and has instructed the police and security agencies to deal with the protesters. It will do him no good. If the protests continue on this scale, Netanyahu's government will fall. And probably quite soon. As for President Macron and the mass protests he is facing over his edict to force through a rise in the pension age from 62 to 64, he will fall only if he capitulates. After successive failures by all his predecessors to reform the pension structure, Macron has taken the tough decision and looks like he will stick with it. This is not democracy at stake, like it is in Israel, it's all about taking action to bring France into the 21st century. If only there were mass protests right now in Moscow and in every Russian capital to put pressure on Putin to stop his war in Ukraine. But apart from a few hundred mothers angry about the deaths of their sons and husbands, the Russian population has stayed relatively quiet. There is of course the fear factor, it takes courage to protest on the streets when Putin's security forces are watching. But let's hope for the sake of those facing death and ruin in Ukraine, the Russian people might find that courage to come out in public and oppose Putin.