Israel crisis a battle for country's identity

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While flames lapped around melting tyres on Tel Aviv's main highway, doctors walked out of hospitals and Israel's main airport was shut down, Benjamin Netanyahu kept a country waiting.

Unprecedented protests and strikes gripped Israel on Monday, the climax of months of dissent over the government's plans to strip power from Israel's judges.

Now with a nation in crisis, all sides watched for the prime minister to act.

When he finally appeared on national TV - maximising the impact with a live address at the top of the 20:00 nightly news shows - he began by likening his position to a story about King Solomon.

Just as the biblical monarch had to judge which of two competing women was the real loving mother of a baby, he had made his own decision when it came to the two sides contesting his reforms.