WhatsappThere are very few things that are as vital to Israel’s national security as the pilots in Israel’s Air Force and Israel’s top doctors. Yet, those two critical groups have been heavily involved in wreaking havoc in the recent attempt to bring Israel’s government to a halt. The lack of red lines of the protesters has indeed been frightening to the mainstream in the Israeli public.
The issue has clearly gone way beyond the proposals to reform the judicial system. That was merely used as a pretext to lead a rolling protest movement gathering intensity that is clearly focused on bringing down Benjamin Netanyahu personally, and his right-wing government along with him.
In the short term, the protesters have certainly won a victory. Despite the minimal reforms in the judiciary passing in the Knesset, the general population leans more heavily towards icing the issue temporarily rather than continuing the ongoing strife in the country by pushing forward.
But the truth will win out over time. The protest movement has largely been based on lies and gross exaggerations. The Supreme Court of Israel has indeed been in need of major reforms to turn back the radicalization of the court over the last few decades. That is in order to INSURE that Israel stays democratic. The threat to Israel is not from the legislative branch having too much power, but from Israel’s judiciary having unbridled power to intervene without any checks to it’s power.
But the protests have also been based on massive exaggeration. Israel’s Pilots and Israel’s doctors who made loud pronouncements of their unwillingness to serve the public as a form of protest are representative of a small minority of the State of Israel. And they all are an embarrassment to their positions who should be reprimanded or removed.
If there are any two things in Israel that should be apolitical, it is the Israeli Army and Israeli hospitals. Arab doctors serve in Israeli hospitals alongside Israeli doctors. This is something to be proud of. There is no question that most of these doctors differ politically between each other. But they are not in the Knesset. They are serving in an apolitical theatre.
If any doctor has the chutzpah to use their position as a valid excuse to protest, they ought to lose their right to that position. But pilots are a separate breed. They have tens of millions of dollars in the grip of their hands and the control of national security at their fingertips. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been invested in them. If they choose to usurp that power in order to protest the country that gave them that power, they should be summarily fired.
A country without clear red lines on issues of national security will ultimately self-destruct. Thank G-d, it is only a small minority in Israel making the noise about not flying the F-16’s, and indeed, it is not truly a sincere threat. Most of the pilots, left-wing or right-wing, understand that they must check their politics at the door before entering the Israeli Army.
