EITHER CHANGE THE SYSTEM OR PERISH

By Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Israel's forthcoming elections on January 28 will bring no significant change in the domestic and foreign policies of the Government headed by Ariel Sharon.

First of all, it will be a national unity government, which means that the public treasury will be raped by a multiplicity of self-seeking parties.

Second, the Sharon Government will remain committed to the Oslo Covenant of Death, which means it will follow the "road map" to a Palestinian state-a road map to perdition. It will lack the courage to say "there isn't enough space between the Jordan and the Mediterranean for two states." It will certainly ignore the fact that in a few years there will be more Arabs than Jews west of the Jordan. (Don't expect the pseudo right-wing" National Union Party headed by Avigdor Lieberman to warn the people about this imminent disaster. Indeed, this fictitious nationalist party will probably join the Sharon Government and rub shoulders with Arafat's ally, Amram Mitzna.)

Third, the Sharon Government will continue to pursue a policy of self-restraint or of non-escalation vis-a-vis Arab terrorism, which means that hundreds of Jews (God forbid) will be murdered by Arab terrorists. Stated another way, Prime Minister Sharon will continue to oppose a policy of zero-tolerance for Arab terrorism.

Fourth, given the 54 year-old system of fixed party lists, members of the Knesset will not be individually accountable to the voters. The Knesset will remain powerless vis-a-vis the Government, since the latter will consist of the coalition party leaders. As a consequence, the Knesset will not be able to exercise the important function of administrative oversight. Official corruption, inefficiency, and violations of the law and of administrative regulations will remain the order of the day.

Fifth, seditious Arabs will remain in the Knesset and thereby make a mockery of Israel as a Jewish state, as well as a democracy-a well-cultivated myth in this country.

Sixth, the Supreme Court will remain a self-perpetuating oligarchy, many of whose decisions will clash with the abiding beliefs and values of the Jewish people. This will exacerbate tensions between religious and non-religious Jews and diminish the Jewish character of the state.

Seventh, the Sharon Government will continue to oppose any amendment of the "grandfather clause" of the Law of Return. The 300,000 gentiles that have entered Israel as a result of this clause will swell to more than 400,000 in three or four years.

Eighth, the Sharon Government will do nothing about the Arab demographic problem. Since 50% of the births occurring in Israel are not Jewish, the country's Jewish population will shrink from its present 72% -- it was 82% twenty years ago - to a significantly lower figure in four years.

Ninth, the Sharon Government, far from doing anything to make the country more Jewish, will continue to pursue policies that will make the country a "state of its citizens." For example, it will continue large-family allowances for Arab families. No serious program will be adopted to reduce the current rate of abortions among Jewish women, now 80,000 a year. Although the Arabs now comprise 20% of Israel's population, it will continue to receive at least 40% of the National Insurance benefits.

Tenth, the gross economic inequality will continue, as will unemployment, the presence of 300,000 foreign workers, and futile demonstrations by patriotic groups In short, the Jews will remain powerless.

No party in this country other than Yamin Israel has the courage to face the fact that the entire system of government in Israel is corrupt, that every branch of government needs to be overhauled, that drastic institutional change is an absolutely necessary precondition for changing the self-destructive policies of this country.

The forthcoming elections will confirm that democratic elections in this country are futile and will remain futile under the existing electoral laws and institutions of this country. Nothing short of a political revolution is necessary.

This is NOT a call for bloodshed. It is a call for COURAGE. It is a call for HONESTY. It is a call for changing the SYSTEM - a system that is killing Jews almost every day, a system that is leading to Israel's destruction.
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Paul Eidelberg, political scientist, author and lecturer, is the co-founder and president of The Foundation For Constitutional Democracy with offices in Jerusalem and Washington, DC. He is also the president of the Yamin Israel Party. He received his doctoral degree in political science at the University of Chicago.

Professor Eidelberg wrote a trilogy on the statesmanship of America’s founding fathers: On the Silence of the Declaration of Independence; The Philosophy of the American Constitution, and A Discourse on Statesmanship.

He joined Israel’s Bar-Ilan University faculty in 1976. He has written several books on the Arab-Israel conflict and on Judaism: Demophrenia provides a psychological analysis of Israel’s foreign policy. Jerusalem versus Athens and Beyond the Secular Mind apply Jewish concepts for an understanding of modern problems. Judaic Man develops concepts for a Jewish psychology. His most recent book, Jewish Statesmanship: Lest Israel Fall, provides the philosophical and institutional foundations for reconstructing the State of Israel. It has also been published in Hebrew and in Russian.

Professor Eidelberg is on the Editorial Board of Israel’s premier journal Nativ, as well as on the Advisory Council of the Ariel Center for Policy Research. He has written more than 900 articles for newspapers and scholarly journals in the United States and Israel.

Professor Eidelberg has lectured before Israel’s Foreign Office and has written policy papers for various Knesset Members. He chaired a panel discussion on the topic “Why Israel Needs a Constitution” at the 1997 American Political Science Association conference in Washington, DC. He has drafted a Constitution for Israel, which has been published in Hebrew and Russian.

During the past four years, Professor Eidelberg has been conducting seminars on constitutions, diverse parliamentary electoral systems, Jewish law, and related topics at the Jerusalem center of the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy.