Politics vs Democracy: Why The Left Doesn't Want Judicial Reform

 

Israel just had elections a few months ago, the 1st of November, if I remember correctly. The present coalition has only been in office a very short time, and the streets are full of Leftist political rabble-rousers.  Gevalt, why am I using such a weak, harmless term for them?

The truth is that foreign anti-Israel money/backers are trying to destroy the country. They've crafted slogans that totally mask/distort their true aim. The vast majority of the demonstrators haven't a clue as to the truth, nor the meaning of democracy.

Yes, they claim they're for DEMOCRACY, but their very being on the streets demanding that the legally DEMORATICALLY  ELECTED government surrender to their demands is totally absurdly UNDEMOCRATIC.

Bibi Netanyahu's not handling this with the skill and competence he once had. He's of retirement age, and it shows. 

Contrary to the demonstrators' main slogan, Israel's present way of choosing judges is undemocratic and unknown in any of the world's democracies. Israel's "founding fathers" were controlled by a cadre of Leftists, socialists who wanted to make sure that if any of the Revisionists the forerunners of the Likud would ever form a ruling coalition, the Judicial System would remain Leftist. That's why they came up with the idea that the High Court Justices and members of the "Bar" have a majority of the votes in choosing replacements. 

I may not agree with their policies and priorities, but I wouldn't call them stupid. That's why even though for most of the past forty-five 45 years the Likud has been able to make more Right wing coalitions, they have been stymied policy-wise by the Leftist High Court.

When former President of Israel's High Court demands that it is of the utmost importance that the court remain "independent," he means that the court must be the true ruler of the State of Israel. Barak invented a principle of "reasonableness" to decide if a law should stand or not. That's his euphemism for being consistent with his political ideology, not any law or legal precedent. He set himself up as an unelected dictator, and then passed the powers to his replacements, whom he put into power. Is that democracy?

Judicial Reform is an attempt to correct this political anomaly and make Israel more like other democracies. But to be honest, it doesn't go far enough. It's still based on the old system but will give a bit more votes to the Knesset members. And considering that the justices don't resign/retire all that quickly, it will take a long time for us to see any real differences. Of course the sitting justices will claim the law "illegal." 

But in the meantime thousands of Israelis are having fun at "street carnivals" trying to take down the legally elected government and sowing chaos in the country. Obviously, they are wealthy enough to take off from work, or someone is....

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Will The Chareidim Be The New NRP?

The NRP, Mafdal, National Religious Party used to have a slogan to make it clear that they'd justify being in all coalitions to support their "special interests."

In those days they'd stay out of "politics" or anything controversial. They were "middle of the road," and even Leftist. They'd claim that their presence in the coalition was to safeguard the mamlachti dati, religious public schools, their kibbutzim and the rabbinate. This "ideology" predated the 1967 Six Days War. Religiosity in Israel was rather weak and apologetic. The Baal Teshuva Phenomenon hadn't yet reached Israel, and the NRP was more Labor with a crocheted kippah than comfortable with Menachem Begin and his followers.

It took a decade after the mind-blowing miraculous 1967 Six Days War for Menachem Begin's Likud to gain power and the settling of Judea and Samaria to begin in earnest. The old NRP leaders had to join with Likud to keep their power, and the youngsters were influenced by Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook to settle the Land. Their youth movement, Bnai Akiva, moved more to the Right both politically and religiously. Also, after all these decades the mamlachti dati, religious public school system is firmly entrenched in government bureaucracy and is not under threat.

Israel's political chaos of today requires shaking things up to form a coalition. That's why there are rumors that Blue & White will try to make a deal with the chareidi parties. Today's chareidi parties are more insecure than the strongly ideological dati leumi, national religious crowd. The chareidim have more financial needs to support their schools, yeshivot, social services and amutot. They need to be in the coalition.

For Blue & White to form a ruling coalition, they need to break Bibi's bloc of parties, or at least MKs. As soon as Gantz's crew get a few deserters, he can declare a government. So my guess is that the chareidi political leaders will use their talmudic skills to rationalize jumping Bibi's ship and joining with Gantz. And Gantz will rationalize/defend his going against his "no chareidi" promise by reminding his supporters that the alternative would be another useless tied election.

What do you think?

The Lost Artist, Book Review

The Lost Artist LOVE PASSION WAR (PART 1) by Eric Hausman-Houston is a totally amazing book about an extraordinary person. It's the story of one of Israel's and the Jewish People's unsung heroes. According to the author, Eric Hausman-Houston, it's only slightly fictionalized. It's the story of his father, Fritz Chaim Fred Hausman.

Fritz Hausmann was sent to Mandate Palestine at the age of thirteen 13 by his parents who insisted on staying in Germany. He found himself at Ben Shem, an agricultural high school, where boys lived and studied. At that point the war hadn't yet begun in Europe, and he kept hoping that his parents would join him in what was then called Palestine. But like many successful Jewish German businessmen and German army veterans, his father refused to believe that there would be actual danger to Jews in Germany. Also, even as things became difficult for Jews there, he still thought it better than living in primitive, poverty-stricken Palestine.

The Lost Artist begins as a mystery of sorts. A young Israeli mother goes on a quest to discover who was the illustrator of her favorite children's book, "And There Was Evening." In the first part of the book, chapters alternate between her search for the illustrator and the story of a little Jewish boy in Germany named Fritz. It becomes a book just about Fritz at one point, and we never find out how they connect. I asked the author, Eric Hausman-Houston, and he said that mystery will be solved in Part 2.

Fritz, renamed Chaim to help him fit in, proved to be a good student, hard worker on the farm and learned Hebrew. Hebrew wasn't his first foreign language. While still a child in Germany, he picked up a number of other languages whenever traveling with his family to other countries for vacations.

Even though Chaim was Jewish, his being German set him apart from most other students. He hadn't grown up surrounded by children, which was probably part of his social problem. One day he came upon a beautiful black horse. The person in charge of the stable insisted that the horse was dangerous, but not with Chaim. That horse became his "best friend."

Due to Chaim's intelligence and hard work he was admired and appreciated, and from a very young age he became part of the illegal Jewish self-defence and pro-immigrant group, the Haganah. He seemed fearless and was secretly trying to establish a peaceful, tolerant state in which his father would be willing to live. For that he even met with Arabs. Since Chaim was tall, confident and very cosmopolitan, people didn't realize how young he was.

I found it hard to put The Lost Artist down. It's very well written. It's a real adventure story, especially as Eric Hausman-Houston writes about his father's World War Two army service in the British Army for which he was awarded Britain's highest medals for bravery. That's one of the reasons that Houston wrote the books. His father was listed as a recipient of the honor but never received the actual medals. When Houston tried to get them, he discovered that someone had apparently stolen them, figuring that the  family would never make a request for them.

The family wants the medals back and hope that the book will put pressure on whoever is now holding them and make the British Government take responsibility for the loss.

I highly recommend The Lost Artist whether buying it for yourself or as a gift for teens and adults alike.

Product details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (April 19, 2017)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1545569886
• ISBN-13: 978-1545569887