The lesson for Binyamin Netanyahu is that quasi-constitutional reform requires broad consensus. For the protesters, the lesson is that electoral power has and will tilt towards religious Israelis
The danger now is that, hoping the protesters’ fervour has cooled, Mr Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing and religious coalition partners try to force through his laws with only cosmetic changes in May, in the next session of the Knesset. That would almost certainly reignite the conflict. If right-wing parties called out their supporters, violence could erupt. To heal their divisions, Israelis must take this chance to resume the constitutional talks they put on hold 73 years ago.
This alone should cheer liberals and democrats everywhere. Viktor Orban in Hungary, Andrzej Duda of Poland and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey all weakened or politicised their courts as a prelude to ramming through illiberal policies. In India a court recently convicted Rahul Gandhi, an opposition leader, over a campaign speech, leading to his exclusion from parliament.