Howard Epstein – LET THE LIGHT OF DEMOCRACY SHINE AGAIN FROM ISRAEL
“There is a crack”, as the late and greatly-missed Leonard Cohen sang, “in everything”. And, thankfully, they are beginning to appear in the Likud faction of the disastrous Netanyahu government. Cohen continues, about the cracks, “that’s how the light gets in” and we may be seeing the first glimmers of light in Israel this year.
Being dispossessed is no longer only a Palestinian complaint. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been demonstrating for thirty straight weeks about their being dispossessed – of their cherished democracy. Likud members of the Knesset are beginning to feel dispossessed of the ministerial offices that they coveted, and had earned over many years of service and now see occupied by extreme right-wingers. Those Likud MKs also do not wish to be dispossessed of a country that used to live at peace with itself.
Last week, the shameless Netanyahu government, in a vote boycotted by the opposition parties, rather than dignify it by casting their ballot, inserted the rapier-thin edge of a very fat wedge destructive of justice in Israel, by abolishing the test of reasonableness for governmental decisions. In a parliament with one legislative chamber (ie no UK House of Lords, and no USA Senate, as a revising chamber) the courts were the only check on governmental and ministerial abuse of power. Now the courts’ prospects are evisceration by successive Knesset bills.
This process amounts to a coup d’état, the profoundly regrettable results of which are already being felt: water cannon directed by Israeli police at the Israeli people, volatility of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange indices, further collapse of the once mighty shekel and – worst of all – fear on the part of members of the IDF.
Fearless in battle, they now perceive an enemy that really worries them, for to leave Israel will make them fair game, particularly in Europe, for prosecutors of war crimes. Why now? Because hitherto the Israeli justice system was respected as trustworthy in the context of the enforcement of the Geneva Convention. Known as the Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts, its purpose is to provide minimum protections, standards of humane treatment and fundamental guarantees of respect to individuals who become victims of armed conflicts. Now, Israel’s detractors will argue that the Israeli courts, on their way to being emasculated by King Bibi and his entourage, can no longer be trusted to enforce the Convention.
Israel’s enemies and critics must be salivating at the prospect of putting Israeli soldiers, sailors and airmen on trial outside Israel, meaning long periods of incarceration for military men and women who serve and have served in Israel’s people’s army.
Does Netanyahu care? He who would destroy a system, reliable and widely trusted for the past 75 years, for the sake of his own personal get-out-of-jail-free card, refused even to grant an audience on the eve of last week’s vote to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi for a security briefing. Reckless, unprecedented, and cowardly!
Every element of a working democracy was present when Israel entered 5783, yet today we can it may die a death by a thousand cuts. The reasonableness standard last week. Appointments of controllable judges tomorrow? Annexation of the West Bank in 5784?
- A New Year and a potential disaster. Any perceived attack on the Palestinian Authority would cause the Americans to react swiftly and decisively. “You know what, Bibi?” Biden would say. “You’re on your own now. We are the world’s experts at applying sanctions, so we can cut you off from almost everything you need: arms, spare parts, joint hi-tech and military projects, and standing up to Iran. You name it; at the end of the day, we control it.” And the pace of Israel’s vicious downward spiral would quickly reach warp speed.
Are things really that bleak? What about the cracks and the light they are letting in? There is definitely some detectable movement. On Friday last, the well-respected Times of Israel reported that MK Eli Dellal said he would not support further overhaul legislation without broad public backing, and that Yuli Edelstein, head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that the days of hardline lawmakers vetoing compromises are “over”. It is said MK David Bitan is also expected to take a similar position. Glimmers of light – and we have to hope that they indicate the start of the collapse of the structure of the coalition. If the talk of a new coalition between Lapid’s Yesh Atid, the main opposition party joining with Likud to oust the extremists turns out to be real, then there will be real hope of improvement.
What has been happening to the country that really had been living up to the traditional promise – or injunction – to be a light unto the nations (Isaiah 42:6) brings a feeling of being dispossessed of everything that is precious. It is to be hoped that the sight of some 60% of the Israeli working population turning out in peaceful protest in favour of democracy, with the threat of a general strike looming again, will lead to the abandonment of extremism.
May the light-admitting cracks grow to the point when the beacon of real democracy can shine brightly once again in our Promised Land.
© August 2023, Howard Epstein – www.howard-epstein.com
