WhatsappWhat drives Benjamin Netanyahu to take on some of the most thorny and controversial issues in Israel? Is it personal aggrandizement of power? Is it a sincere regard for the well-being of the State of Israel? At the core of many of the demonstrations that the left wing is organizing against the present government is distaste and fear of losing control of the State of Israel to right wing and religious elements of the State of Israel. The left indeed has a lot to be worried about. Their power is decreasing day by day.
The reason that the left has so much to be concerned about is that the vast majority of the Jewish constituency of the State of Israel is right wing, religiously inclined, or both. For the last decade, more than 60% of the Jewish electorate has consistently voted for right wing or religious parties (who side with the right wing). A convincing argument can be made that the number approaches 65%, and the trend is only going in the direction of more right wing and more religious.
So, how can one argue that right wing and more religious policies being instituted by the right wing and religious parties are undemocratic if they represent the clear majority of the electorate? A weak argument can be made that along with the Arab parties, Israel is indeed split down the middle between left and right. But this argument belies the fact that most, if not all, of the Arab parties do not accept or support the very existence of the State of Israel. So, making believe that they should be seen as part of the equation is problematic at best.
Bibi Netanyahu is a master at staying in power. He has been elected six times to be the Prime Minister of the State of Israel. The opposition to him is more personal than ideological. Due to Israel not having any term limits, he can be elected 10 times. That is a fault in the Israeli political system. Nobody is even talking about this issue. But the more serious problem is that the judiciary is the most imbalanced, political branch of Israeli governance that largely represents the hard left.
The Supreme Court has always hid behind the shield of being the “defenders of democracy” while actually being the number one branch of Israel’s government that has trampled on Israel’s democracy. The litmus test that has absolutely no justification was the decision by the democratically elected Israeli government to kick out nearly 10,000 residents of Gush Katif in 2005. There has never been a more blatant dismissal of human rights by the Israeli government who was elected on the platform that it would treat Gush Katif like Tel-Aviv. Then, in a clear about face due to legal pressure on the Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon decided to unilaterally destroy the lives of nearly 10,000 Jewish residents of Gush Katif and carry out the designs of the left wing that had lost the election in a landslide election. Eeerybody on Israel’s right (and left) believes that Sharon did this in order to stay in the seat of the Prime Minister. The Supreme Court saw nothing undemocratic in this as the Supreme Court was dominated by radical left wing supporting judges who always stood in the way of demolitions of homes of Arab terrorists. The rights of Jews in Judea and Samaria was never a higher priority than the rights of terrorists who targeted them.
The only way to change the self-reappointing of left wing Supreme Court judges is to change the system. That is what Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is doing today. The left knows they have little chance to succeed at the ballot box, so they are trying to rally the entire world against the State of Israel. It will not work. The State of Israel is on the verge of taking a major step forward in the direction of democracy no matter how many people scream that democracy is in danger of being lost in Israel.
The demonstrations of the left are indeed large and impressive. But the demonstrations against the forced destruction of the Gush Katif communities were much larger and spanned the entire State of Israel. It did not matter. Democracy was trampled on then and Israel destroyed the lives of nearly ten thousand Jewish heroes. Today, the problem is being corrected. It is indeed an historic time in the State of Israel.
