How Will Israel Fail? Let Us Count the Ways
or Belief in the God of Israel Equals Right-Wing Extremism
This is an example of high-quality writing about Israel that suffers only one detriment: it is wrong-headed. Right off the bat the author makes an absolute howler of a statement:
With the peace agreements that Israel recently signed with many of its former enemies in the region, the greatest threat to Israel’s existence no longer comes from outside the country but from rising political divisions within.
Let’s hope that the General Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces are not taking this at face value. Quick note to author: Iran. I’ve written about this, for the record, but now I am thinking that it may be time to revisit the subject. Some things have a way of coming invisible when the continued existence of a Jewish State is concerned. Here is what I wrote:
The author concludes his opening paragraph:
Israel…could well come apart.
It has become a hobby of liberals and progressives the world over: predict the inevitable collapse of Israel if it does not toe the line of Western Liberalism. If Israel dares to, say, color itself more Jewish, then its fate is at one with the Ayatollahs of fascist Iran (though not explicitly calling out Iran because, well, cultural sensitivities). This first paragraph is enough to tell the reader what is coming. I will address one or two central points.
"In the 1990s, Israel underwent a “constitutional revolution” and the Basic Laws assumed even more importance in the Court’s judicial review process."
Israel did not passively "undergo" a constitutional revolution. There was a well-planned strategic grab for power by the Supreme Court orchestrated by Chief Justice Aharon Barak. If Barak had left his revolution at safeguarding civil rights of all Israeli citizens, which is the purview of High Courts throughout the Liberal West, all would have ended well. As it was, the innate respect that all Israelis had at the time for an independent Supreme Court, from right to left, allowed Barak to create unhindered a Supreme Court that became the absolute arbiter of all legislation. As of today, any law proposed by the Knesset can be cancelled outright by being labeled "unreasonable" in the eyes of the Court. The eyes of the Court being a euphemism for the eyes of Supreme Court justices appointed by Barak and his like-thinking deputies, who continue to appoint like-thinking candidates to that same court.
This was an illegal transfer of power from the legislative branch to the judicial branch. It was revolution consummated in the passive/aggressive way of the old/new elites. "Cross us, and you'll be labeled an extremist, and we'll see you in court," they say to all near and far with the self-confidence of the tyrants that they are. The Knesset still goes through the motions of an independent legislature, but it is just a Broadway musical, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Though the bureaucratic machinations of this revolution were subterraneous, silent and unviolent, one example will suffice to demonstrate the absolute violence done to the Jewish people in the name of Supreme Court “reasonableness.”
During the second Intifada, when Jewish civilians were attacked by terrorists using guns supplied to them by the Israeli government as per the Oslo “Peace” Accords, the Supreme Court initially curtailed the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) ability to apply preventative measures to reduce the risks of terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens. I say initially, because soon enough the IDF took the lead in curtailing itself. On the road leading to the settlement bloc in Gaza of Gush Katif, where endless attacks on Jews were perpetrated, the IDF started to clear both sides of the road out to about eighty meters on each side to prevent the terrorists from approaching. One spot was not cleared. There was a small cluster of three unoccupied Arab buildings adjacent to the main road. The IDF wanted to remove them. The Supreme Court refused. Jews were murdered from that spot. The Supreme Court still refused. More Jews were murdered from that spot. Thus, the civil rights of absentee tenants (who could have been compensated) or more accurately, the “civil rights” of some empty buildings trumped the rights of Jews to live, and the murdered joined a long list of “Jewish human sacrifices for peace”, as the supporters of the Oslo Accords were calling them.
Over the course of Israeli history, the Court’s powers have been central to preventing any ruling group from imposing its vision on the rest of the country.
Not true. For the first thirty-five years of Israeli history, the Socialist-Zionist “vision” was imposed ruthlessly through all areas of life in the country. Finding employment without belonging to the Histadrut workers union was extremely difficult. The Chinese communists had their little red book of Maoist sayings and Israelis had their little red book, wherein the payments of monthly union dues to the socialist collective were recorded. The entire socialist infrastructure fell apart during the 80’s, and soon after, the Supreme Court began imposing its vision on Israel, and has continued doing so until the present time.
But the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu has no moderate elements. It is a coalition of extremists because moderate parties were unwilling to join a coalition with Netanyahu given the corruption charges he is facing.
The largest party in the coalition, the Likud, is nothing if not moderate, and has been so since taking power for the first time in 1977. This is the party that made peace with Egypt by giving back the entire Sinai. This is the party that made peace with the UAE. The corruption charges he is facing were trumped-up charges brought by a corrupt DA office and Police, as is gradually becoming apparent. It should be noted that three major opposition members of the Knesset belong ideologically to the Likud, a party they left only because of personal issues with Netanyahu. They lead small factions that would have no problem joining the governing coalition if someone other than Netanyahu were leading the Likud. These factions alone would account for more seats than the “extreme right wing” parties mentioned by the author.
Hence, his Likud Party was forced to ally with parties of the extreme right such as Religious Zionism (HaTzionut Hadatit), Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit), Noam (representing radical Religious Zionists), Shas and United Torah Judaism (both of whom represent the fundamentalist Haredim).
It is tiring to have to point this out repeatedly, but it needs to be done. Extremism here is a euphemism for those who believe in the God of Israel and believe that Israel has a legitimate claim to the areas of Judea and Samaria. Do not religious Jews deserve a space under the democratic sun? Nobody will say that they do not. That is not part of the passive/aggressive playbook. No, first they must be labeled as extremists, (and even sometimes, surrealistically, Nazis and fascists). Then they can be denied their rights.
If he is pushing the curtailment of the judiciary’s powers, it is because that’s his best hope of staying out of jail.
This has the taste of a libelous statement. Regardless, his best hope of staying out of jail is the disintegration of the charges against him, as is happening now.
Here are some examples of these "extremists."
Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the Jewish Power movement who has been appointed National Security Minister, has visited contested sites like Al Aqsa/Temple Mount.
How dare Ben-Gvir visit a contested site! Yes, Jews have prayed for two thousand years to this site but still, to visit? Ben-Gvir is such an extremist. Smotrich “called for the annihilation of Huwara.” Context anyone? Two Jews had been slaughtered earlier that day while driving through--an ongoing occurrence in that village. Smotrich immediately apologized for his statement. Any honest observer saw that he was speaking in the heat of mourning and pain.
Enough. Israel is definitely going through an internal struggle, but it is not a new struggle, and it will not bring about the end of the country. There will be a synthesis. Religious, observant Israeli Jews of all types have come to appreciate many of the moral values of western liberal orientated Israeli Jews, and the attendant material fruits of this worldview. These same liberal non-observant Jews are taking a new interest in things Jewish, especially considering renewed world-wide antisemitism.
It seems that there is a universal thirst for catastrophe in Israel. Legions of modern-day prophets predict doom and gloom for the Jewish State. These are relics of past, mostly forgotten and discarded beliefs that in the end apparently cannot be forgotten or discarded. The destiny of the Jews is more than just the destiny of the Jews. Everyone, believers and non-believers, lovers and haters of Zion, knows this to be so.
Excellent rebuttle to the extremist diatribe, presented as an article. You might want to add, that both the Likud and Religious Zionism parties, are among the only parties that hold democratic primaries and therefore the only parties that can be called democratic. The Left and extreme left parties are autocratic, ruled by a single leader, not unlike Israel's Supreme Court itself.