'Protesters are wrong when they claim that this judicial reform will end Israeli democracy,' says Trump apologist Alan Dershowitz

 Last Night's Weekly Demonstration in Jerusalem Opposite the President's House

Q & A

The government's judicial overhaul putsch has elicited militant opposition.

For good reason. The Netanyahu government's goal is to enervate the judiciary and make the attorney general and state prosecutor stooges of the cabinet. It wants to drain the Supreme Court of its judicial review powers. Since Israel has no constitution or bill of rights, removing the only institution that checks the government's power would transform Israel into an illiberal democracy. Read up on judicial reform here:

The Israel Democracy Institute

Axios

Israel Hayom

Netanyahu refuses to be interviewed in the Hebrew press, but he has told foreign media outlets that "judicial reform" will improve Israel's democracy. The winner of the Pinocchio Prize told Fox News that he doesn't understand why there is so much interest in Israel's internal affairs. After all, he's "never commented about the internal debates in other democracies." And Trump apologist Alan Dershowitz writes in the JC, "Protesters are wrong when they claim that this judicial reform will end Israeli democracy." 

That very much depends on how you define "democracy." If you mean "pure majority rule" with no structural or constitutional protections for the minority, Israel will be more democratic like the UN General Assembly, where the raw majority rules. It's also a matter of aesthetics -- if you are comfortable shilling for Trump, Julian Assange, and Jeffrey Epstein, you might also feel Netanyahu's regime change putsch doesn't stink.

I don't get why things are so visceral?

Start by looking at who we are battling. The main component of the Netanyahu government is the post-Jabotinsky Likud; many of its MKs have floated into the party from the Haredi-Leumi planet or are garden-variety demagogues and ethno-pyromaniacs. 

Next come the Haredi-Leumi parties led by Ben-Gvir (Jewish National Front), Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party), and Maoz (Noam). All are messianic, apocalyptic, and blinkered. 

Rounding out the government are the ultra-Orthodox UTJ and Shas parties. They are benighted, reflect draft dodgers' interests, and are infamously intolerant. 

Together these radical political parties are trying to create an Israel in their own image.

So this is left versus right?

You're really not getting me. Most Israelis no longer see the political map that way. This is a struggle between liberalism and intolerance, middle-class values against authoritarianism, and cosmopolitanism versus parochialism. If you lived here, which vision would you prefer?

Granted, the "reasonableness" amendment to Israel's Basic Judiciary Law was passed by the Knesset 64-0, but you make it seem like the sky is falling...

"Judicial reform" is an amorphous bundle of proposed bills that elements in the government aim to pass into law. The ultimate outcome would be an Israel in which ultra-Orthodox rabbis (haredi and haredi- Leumi) have more power beyond their current control over "who is a Jew," kashrut, divorce, marriage, and burial.

Political power would be ever more concentrated in the extremist government, which anyway controls the Knesset.

When all is said and done, Israel's media (Kol Yisroel/Kan and Army Radio as well as Channel 11, 12, & 13) ) will be hamstrung, patronage appointees will upstage the professional civil service, budgetary resources will be redistributed to the kollel world, the Bank of Israel and the Bureau of Statistics will cater to the political whims of the government. So, too, the National Library. 

Already, West Bank settlement expansion no longer requires the approval of the political echelon, only a green light from "the Minister in the Ministry of Defense," Bezalel Smotrich, also Finance Minister.

And put aside the brain drain that will ensue if Netanyahu gets his way. Elite IDF units will be short on service personnel and training instructors. Doctors studying abroad or on foreign fellowships may not return. The high-tech sector will be depleted. Longterm, Washington and Western Europe will dissociate from us economically and diplomatically. 

Without a strong Supreme Court, our enemies will exploit their lawfare tools at The Hague and elsewhere. Until now, Israel's High Court of Justice has factored international law into its rulings. If the court is sidelined,  Israeli assertions that we honor international law are fatally undermined.

I just feel it will all work out in the end. The good news, at least, is that Likud ministers are saying they will not pursue any further legislation without a consensus.

Pleeeezzz! Insinuating that they will henceforth curb their rapacious appetites might just be a way to lull the opposition into sluggishness. I will take your sanguinity as naivete, not disingenuousness. 

My response is: "You're either part of the solution or part of the problem."  I mean you.

Or, put another way – "If You Can Keep Your Head When Everybody Round You Is Losing Theirs, Then Maybe You Don't Understand the Severity of the Situation."  

Wake up, for God's sake.

OK. OK. Maybe now is a good time for all sides to compromise?

Do you mean maybe we can settle for a semi-undemocratic Israel? Like Poland or Hungary.  Yair Lapid outlined the singular possible road to compromise in this Knesset speech. There needs to be an 18-month moratorium on regime change while talks to rebuild Israel's polity are conducted.

You have to acknowledge that the courts do have too much power…?

There is no question that Israel's political system needs reengineering – from how we elect the Knesset and the lack of genuine representation for everyone living between the Mediterranean and the River Jordan to restructuring numerous state institutions. 

Doing so calls for a constitutional assembly (like the one envisaged by our Declaration of Independence). You might say we need a Strategic Plan.

Fixing what's wrong should be done systematically, prudently, and by broad consensus, not by a bunch of extremists with a four-seat majority-riding shotgun over the rest of us.

Any further reading suggestions for this weekend?

Yes. These two...

BRET STEPHENS

Israel's Self-Inflicted Wound

YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI

The wounded Jewish psyche and the divided Israeli soul

 

A Black Day for Israel's Democracy

 

'We have taken the first step in the important historical process ...'

                            - Yariv Levin, Justice Minister, and key                                                                                     regime change architect.

- Haaretz, Yediot and Yisroel Hayom all have the same black front page today.

Are the anti-regime change protests helping? (Today is the 206th day of the Netanyahu/Ben-Gvir/Smotrich/UTJ/Shas government) | December 29, 2022

 

                                                 Human Chain Protest This Morning Old City, Jerusalem

Just got back from the "human chain" demonstration from the Old City to the Knesset. It was 33 degrees (91F) near the Jaffa Gate by 10 AM.

"Do you think all these protests will make any difference," we ask each other.

Regardless, we have no option but to protest. Whatever happens, my conscience has to be clear.

Either we lose and wind up with an Israel where a pure majority dominates, or we end up strengthening the principle that democratic values trump majoritarian control.

The Netanyahu-Haredi-Hardal camp argues: "We won – let us enjoy the fruits of victory."

But they want to exploit their four-seat Knesset majority to impose – not "judicial reform" but – their unenlightened vision upon Israel. Their Israel is illiberal. In their Israel, ultra-Orthodox/socially conservative values would dominate popular culture, education, media, and the public square. 

We say that to fundamentally change the rules of the political game, you need to hold the equivalent of a constitutional convention, not exploit a four-seat Knesset majority.

So where are we now?

I have never seen Israel this divided since I made Aliya. Both sides feel they are engaged in a zero-sum game.

And the person who brought us to the precipice of catastrophe is Binyamin Netanyahu.

I wish him good health. When he underwent anesthesia last night to implant a pacemaker, he left Justice Minister Yariv Levin as Acting Prime Minister.

The lengths to which Netanyahu has gone to stay in power are unpardonable. I gave up on him when in 2011, he released 1,027 terrorists from prison. Many had blood on their hands. The worst of them went on to restore Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza and the West Bank. But Bibi -- a master manipulator --changed the subject. 

In building his current coalition, he appointed ethno-pyromaniacs, groomed messianic fanatics, empowered convicted criminals, and raised inciteful demagogues to sensitive ministries. He gave the keys to the kingdom to rabid ideologues Justice Minister Levin and chair of the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee Simcha Rothman. 

What now? Later this afternoon, Big Capital and Big Labor may decide whether to call for a general strike if the government insists on proceeding with a vote on the first phase of its regime change putsch.

This is not a simple left-right or religious-secular divide. It is a fundamental disagreement about what kind of Israel each camp wants. 

I pray Netanyahu comes to his senses before the damage he has wrought is irreversible.

 

 

An Open Letter to an Old Comrade -

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Today is the 204th day of the Netanyahu/Ben-Gvir/Smotrich/UTJ/Shas government, which came into office on December 29, 2022

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Dear Alex,

I have appreciated getting your pieces in support of Netanyahu's judicial "reforms." 

And I am impressed by your energy and creativity.

That said, I wanted you to know that I am committed to blocking the government's efforts at regime change on the basis of its slim four-seat majority. 

As Jabotinsky's yahrzeit approaches, I would like to think it is obvious on which side this cosmopolitan liberal democrat would be standing.

Not with the benighted hardalnikim of the Ben-Gvir/Smotsrich messianic ilk but with the Opposition. He might likely look at the benches of Likud and bow his head in dismay at the demagogues and ethnic pyromaniacs among them. 

He would dissociate from Likud and find another political home. 

You cite Evie Gordon, who is a clever thinker. But one in this instance myopically focused on the trees when the forest is burning. 

This crisis has morphed. It is now only tangentially about judicial reform.

Instead, it is about the ethos of the country -- EITHER liberal, Jewish, and democratic OR ultra-Orthodox-halachic, insular, and politically extremist and messianic. 

I wish you good health, an easy Fast, and that we should all hear besorot tovot. 

Respectfully, 

Elliot

TONIGHT THURSDAY - 19:00/ צעדה המונית מככר פריז לשער יפו!*** Dear Friends & Family Abroad

Hundreds of protesters are marching from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, due here on Sunday.

Dear Friends & Family Abroad -

Events here in Israel are moving at a dizzying pace, and I wanted to keep you updated.

Overnight, the Knesset Law, Constitution, and Justice Committee put the finishing touches to the “Reasonableness Bill” that would hamstring the judiciary from adjudicating government appointments and firings. The committee will now send the bill to the entire Knesset to debate and presumably pass into law as the Government controls 64 in the 120-seat Knesset. 

Passage would mean that, for example, Aryeh Deri could -- as Netanyahu wants -- be appointed Finance Minister, notwithstanding a graft record that landed him in prison. He is head of the Sephardic Shas Party, an essential constituent in the Netanyahu government.

But let’s not lose sight of the forest because of a tree.

The reasonableness law is part of a slew of legislation intended to castrate the judiciary and concentrate power in the hands of the executive. It aims to fundamentally change the Israeli political system so that the values of the benighted current leadership are permanently enshrined.

In the fullness of time, they intend to muffle the media, strengthen the ultra-Orthodox all-male rabbinical courts (which already control marriage, divorce, and conversion), emasculate higher education, and take charge of "culture." Indeed, this is a cultural war over values. And "live and let live" is not in the extremist vocabulary. 

If you envision Israel as a Sparta permanently at war with Muslim civilization; if, like the Sicarii of old, you believe that critics of the Netanyahu-Ben-Gvir government are “leftist traitors” and “haters of Israel” who need to be dealt with; if you want messianic politicians to direct the country’s domestic and foreign affairs (from reprogramming the youth to jettisoning ties with the vast majority of Diaspora Jews) then by all means either sit quietly or shill outright for the Bibists and Hardalnikim.

...Or if you want a tolerant, Jewish, and democratic Israel - join the Big Tent Opposition.

I am uncomfortably behind the same barricades as Gideon Levy and Tom Friedman. But just like Trump was occasionally right, so too are Levy and Friedman. 

I am comforted by the fact that every previous director of the Mossad and Shin Bet  (save for Avi Dichter, who is a member of Netanyahu's Government) and every previous IDF Chief of Staff, and every previous prime minister and every previous governor of the Bank of Israel and every previous Supreme Court justice and every previous Attorney General and police commissioner and the leaders of high-tech, academia, the business world, and the union chiefs ALL OPPOSE the Netanyahu/Ben-Gvir putsch for regime change. 

Elite members of the IDF who have proffered their time to the country are drawing the line and announcing they will volunteer no more. Not to a country that is going the way of Poland and Hungary. We are not talking about draft dodgers (like many in the Haredi community) or refusing to serve while on active duty (as was the case during the Gaza disengagement). These folks have already gone above and beyond the call of duty.

Get involved if Israel is precious to you, no matter where you are.

As the axiom goes: “If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem.”  

--------------

And here are some links that caught my attention:

A leading "As a Jew" pundit named Goldberg noch endorses a canard about Israel.

MICHELLE GOLDBERG The Hysterical Overreaction to Jayapal’s ‘Racist State’ Gaffe

While our Prime Minister focuses on his putsch, the enemy is making plans of its own.

Fatah Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub met in Turkey with Saleh al-Arouri, the head of Hamas's military wing in the West Bank, and discussed strengthening of coordination 

Biden's soft talk falls on deaf ears. 

Biden to Netanyahu: Please Stop Trying to Rush Through Your Judicial Overhaul. Build a Consensus First.

The Biden administration may not replace the outgoing US Ambassador to Israel.

"אם ביטול עילת הסבירות יעבור, ביידן לא ימנה שגריר חדש"

את הדברים אמר חוקר יחסי ישראל־ארצות הברית וחתן פרס ישראל פרופ’ אבי בן־צבי, והוסיף שהגענו למצב של "שבר טקטוני ביחסים". הוא מכריז שאין אופציה לתקיפה באיראן כי היא "תגרור עימות חריף עם אמריקה" ומזהיר ש"ישראל חוזרת להיות מטרד עבור ארה"ב, לא נכס"