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| WZO Vice Chairman Yizhar Hess speaking to protestors (JTA) |
It is more than obvious to me that it is not about whether Israel will be a democracy. Even if Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform package is passed in its original form. Israel will still be a democracy. Which is defined as a government ruled by the will of the people through their freely elected representatives.
That is what happened and that will not change. In four years (if not a lot sooner - which is a far more likely scenario) Israel will once again have an opportunity to choose the kind of government they will have. It may shift to the left - depending upon which direction the political winds are blowing. And that is how it will be governed. Israel is not a dictatorship. No one, not even Ben-Gvir is attempting a dictatorial coup to eliminate elections.
One may retort that democracies are not only defined by elections. That there are other considerations like protecting minority rights. True - that too is a function of a democracy - in their goal of equality for all citizens. But it does not define it. What defines a democracy is doing the will of its people though its elected representatives. That is what happened in Israel..
What judicial reform is doing is actually making sure that the will of the people is not undermined by a Supreme Court with its own set of values. Declaring laws made by Israel’s elected representatives to be unconstitutional. That is not democratic. It is is a dictatorial.
That said, I am not in favor of imposing the will of the majority on the minority. Minority rights deserve to be protected. That is a legitimate function of a 'checks and balances' democracy. But it is not as protestors keep saying - a fight for democracy itself.
Here’s the thing. Israel is not only a democracy. It is also a Jewish state. If Israel is going to be true to that part of its definition it ought to have Jewish values as part of its social fabric. And there is only one place where one can be sure Jewish values reside. The Torah. Which has defined Judaism since the very beginning.
Those protesting reform are really protesting that. They do not want their Judaism to be defined by the Torah. They prefer some sort of amorphous cultural definition that changes with the wind every generation or so. That is what divides protestors. The left asks whether Israel will be a democracy or a theocracy. The right asks whether there will be anything significantly Jewish about the country or will it be a nation like all other nations bereft of any real Jewish content.
The latest incarnation of this fight and the values being debated is recorded in a JTA article:
Tensions over Israel’s future have roiled a convening of the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, in a harbinger of a season of Diaspora Jewish participation in Israel’s fierce political fights.
First, left-wing and centrist delegates to the group, which determines policy for an arm of the Jewish Agency for Israel, rallied in front of Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sweeping proposal to weaken the judiciary. Then, delegates from right-wing groups sought to block voting on resolutions critical of the Israeli government, in a gambit that generated tense scenes from within a body whose deliberations rarely attract public attention.
The tensions spilled over into Friday when the right-wing Knesset member who leads the committee focusing on the judiciary legislation, Simcha Rothman, was briefly cornered by protesters before being whisked away by police.
The incidents offered a sign of how the coming days and weeks might play out in Israel, as thousands of Diaspora Jews make their way to the country for events tied to Israel’s 75th birthday. The birthday comes soon before the days during which Israel’s right-wing government is expected to resume the judiciary legislation, which both proponents and critics say has the potential to change Israel forever. Protests are expected to be fierce.
“We are out here today because the current efforts of the Israeli government to undermine democracy and promote division threatens to tear us apart and not only cause divisions within Israel; it attacks the Diaspora as well,” said John Furstenberg, the vice president for Australasia for Mercaz, the Zionist arm of the Conservative/Masorti movement, who was a one of a number of speakers at the rally outside the Supreme Court.
The left - consisting mostly of secular and a few Dati (MO) Israelis - hates Netanyahu bitterly for catering to the religious parties in his all consuming quest for power. All that talk about his lack of character, lying, and cheating is not what they are all so concerned about. It existed last time he was prime minister, too. None of this is new. And was never protested anywhere near like it is now.
What is new is the legislation he is proposing that they see as ramming religion down their throats. Torah? They will have none of that. Torah will not govern the lives of secular Israelis. I believe that this is what really brings out all the anger. They do not want Torah values to rule. They want secular values to rule. For example - they .want LGBTQ+ behavior to be normalized... throwing biblical values into the trash. Or according to heterodoxy - reinterpreting biblical verses to the point of absurdity!
How sad that implementing a little Yiddishkeit into the lives of secular Jews is so fiercely protested. The secular left wants no part of it. They want Israel to revert to the original Zionist dream of its founders. Which is to be a a nation like all other nations free of any mandatory religious practices.
And then there is the religious Zionist right whose desire is to populate all of Israel regardless of the consequences. That they are now part of the government is extremely troubling to the protestors. It is to me too.
But it is only their rhetoric and often violent tactics that I so vehemently oppose. Tactics that incite increased Palestinian violence. But I am not opposed to their desire to populate all of Israel. That is a Torah value too.
With respect to the religious side of the argument, I want to clearly and unambiguously once again state that I do not believe in shoving Judaism down anyone’s throat. That is counterproductive to say the least!. But that doesn’t mean that adding a little more authentic Judaism into their lives is a bad idea. It just needs to be done with kindness and in pleasant ways. That is not how it has been done in the past.
Meanwhile protests continue and seem to be increasingly violent. At this rate, the state of Israel will self destruct in very short order.