Welcome to Israel!

By Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Introduction:  The people of Israel voted in February 2001 and again in January 2003 to spell Labor backwards.  So what did Ariel Sharon do after being elected prime minister?  He spelled Labor forwards.  How so?   Well, in 2001 he appointed Shimon Peres, the architect of Oslo, as foreign minister.  And now, in 2004, he outdoes Mr. Peres.  Without consulting his cabinet—behaving therefore like an autocrat—Mr. Sharon announces a plan to disengage unilaterally from Gaza, hence to uproot some 7,500 Jews from their homes—the preliminary to uprooting tens of thousands of Jews in Judea and Samaria.  Jewish land will thus be turned over to Israel’s enemies, the Palestinian Authority.  This said, watch how Israeli democracy works. 

1)  Reacting to Sharon’s autocratic display of contempt for his cabinet, Construction and Housing Minister Effie Eitam went to the U.S. and spoke to several members of Congress against his prime minister’s disengagement plan.   Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman lobbied U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer against Sharon’s plan.   Democracy in Israel is alive and well!

2) Not to be outdone, Sharon sends opposition leader Shimon Peres to Washington to counterbalance his recalcitrant cabinet ministers.  Evident here is Israel’s unique contribution to political science:  it’s called the Jewish system of checks and balances!  And this is not all.

3) By sending Peres as his emissary to Washington instead of Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom, Mr. Sharon has created something new in parliamentary history:  a national unity government without a national unity government!?!     

4) Still, what about the 7,500 Jews in Gaza?  Well, some very principled democrats in Israel proposed a national referendum.  Let the majority of the people decide whether Israel’s Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom applies to those 7,500 Jews.   Who knows, perhaps the majority, in its Solomonic wisdom, will decide that the Jews in Gaza are not human?

5) But wouldn’t this be racist?  Nonsense!   A national referendum would allow Israel’s Arab citizens to determine whether Gaza as well as Judea and Samaria should be cleansed of Jews.

6)  Wait!  Doesn’t Sharon’s disengagement plan—his stated intention to turn Gaza over to the Palestinian Authority now waging war against Israel—doesn’t this constitute a violation of Section 99a of the criminal law, namely:  “A person who, with intent to assist an enemy in war against Israel, commits an act calculated to assist him is liable to the death penalty or imprisonment for life”? 

7) My dear sir:  Merely to suggest such a thing is nothing less than INCITEMENT! 

8) Heaven forbid!  I gladly forgo my right to freedom of expression and retract this utterance.  Let me therefore propose an alternative.  Allow me to remind you that Mr. Sharon announced his unilateral disengagement plan—indeed, he even discussed the plan with two American emissaries—without consulting his cabinet.   This is a clear violation of Basic Law: The Government.  Under that law the prime minister is only primus inter pares: he must submit matters of national significance to the cabinet for discussion and decision.  Let us therefore call for his impeachment!

9) My dear sir:  Israel is not the United States.  We have no such legal means of removing a prime minister.  And challenging him before the Supreme Court would be an exercise in futility.  The court would dismiss the suit as political or non-justiciable.

10)  But this is outrageous!  The prime minister is behaving like a dictator and we have no way of obtaining a redress of grievances?  

11)  Come, come, dear fellow.  Mr. Sharon’s violation of a few laws is unexceptional.   Don’t you know that Israel’s political and judicial institutions are designed in such a way as to make the unlawful acts of its prime ministers (and even of its Supreme Court) appear not only legal but consistent with democracy and conducive to peace?

12) But this is impossible?  What about the Knesset?  What has the Knesset been doing during this nightmare?

13)  My dear fellow, haven’t you ever visited the Knesset cafeteria?