Prof. Sam Lehman-Wilzig – Israeli Sovereignty: No Longer Independent (for Quite Awhile)
The main reason for the State of Israel coming into being was to ensure that Jews, through their own elected government, would henceforth be in sole control of their lives and destiny. Sadly, such “sovereignty” has lately suffered from significant erosion – not only from external forces. Here are some stark examples: foreign and domestic.
The war in Gaza has left Hamas in control – at least the southern part of the strip. Why? Because President Trump ordered PM Netanyahu to cease fighting for the issue to be resolved diplomatically. It was clear from the outset that such a “peaceful” end to Hamas’s rule was not going to happen, but Bibi had no choice given that he already had harnessed Israel’s foreign (and military) policy to Trump’s whims.
Ditto regarding Israel’s war on Iran. Here Israel’s “strong” relationship with the U.S. was even more palpable. Despite the combined military onslaught of the two countries somewhat successfully destroying a good part of Iran’s capabilities, here again when Trump decided “enough was enough” Israel had to kowtow to the U.S., despite the Iranian regime’s ability to continue inflicting pain on its enemies. Worse still, the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOA) between the U.S. and Iran (note: no Israeli signature or even input!), leaves virtually all of Israel’s original war goals unachieved, other than destroying part of Iran’s armaments. Even worse than that, according to (at least) Iran’s interpretation of the MOA, the final treaty will not be signed until the IDF leaves all of Lebanon, without Hezbollah demilitarized.
In short, by overly aligning with America, Israel successfully leveraged its military might – but at the price of losing independent decision-making. Ben-Gurion is certainly turning in his grave…
The situation is not much better on the home front. First, large swaths of the country have become internal security wastelands. In the north, organized crime has overwhelmed small and medium-sized businesses with their “protection” rackets, a euphemism for economic extortion. After several years of this, only recently has Israel’s police force begun to address the problem with the numerous victims’ continually and vociferously protesting in the media and through some of their leaders.
In the Negev, the problem is not merely economic, although “rustling” of Jewish farm animals is endemic. No less worrisome – and from a socio-demographic standpoint far worse – is rampant polygamy among the Bedouin, some having up to four “wives”: one officially registered as married (Israeli law allows only one legal spouse) and the others are what once were called “concubines.” These are marriages usually performed according to Sharia (Moslem) law but not registered in Israel’s system. Indeed, many such women are not even native-born but are brought in from Gaza or the West Bank/Judea & Samaria (and occasionally from neighboring countries). As per the mafia “protectionists” in the north, the Israeli authorities are doing very little to eliminate this social scourge, rendering marriage in large parts of Israel ex territoria.
Speaking of social scourge, the one that’s made ongoing headlines for the past year or so is the very high murder count in Israel’s Arab sector. This has three sources: “family honor” killings of (allegedly) “promiscuous” wives or daughters; inter-family feuds (neighbors who don’t get along); murders of gang vs. gang. Whereas the first two are difficult for the police to prevent (and solve, given the Arab culture of “silence” vis-à-vis the authorities), the latter shouldn’t be, and they constitute the largest part of such Arab community mayhem. Here as well the Israeli authorities have seemingly given up in frustration – much to the dismay and anger of Israel’s Arabs, the vast majority of whom are normative citizens.
Ditto to a great extent in the Administered Territories, where “Hilltop Youth” have been running amok for over a year, attacking and maiming Palestinian residents of the area – with the IDF doing very little to stop the scourge. Although technically this isn’t Israeli sovereign territory, large parts are governed solely by Israel and these wayward youth are Israeli citizens. But here too, the government is running a hands-off policy.
Then there’s the “Religion & State” situation. From Israel’s start of Israel’s history, its governments have granted exclusive authority to the rabbis regarding kosher certification, marriage, and divorce. As the latter two are critical fields of life (although a few non-kosher stores and restaurants do exist), such a monopoly constitutes a significant yielding of sovereignty.
A few weeks ago, such sovereignty loss was compounded by a new law that enabled religious courts to deal with civil matters if both sides to a dispute agree to that. This sounds “reasonable,” but misses the way the Haredi world works: women can easily be “persuaded” by the rabbis, or “threatened” with social ostracism, if they don’t agree to have their claims adjudicated in a Haredi court.
Finally, we arrive at the 800-pound (political) gorilla in Israeli politics: the refusal of the ultra-Orthodox to be drafted into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). This too has been an ongoing story from the start of the state but has reached a boil in the past year or so given the huge burden carried by IDF reservists in the wake of the Gaza War.
