Prof. Sam Lehman-Wilzig: Israel’s Democracy: The Enemy Within
Here’s a head-scratching question: what’s more dangerous for a country’s future – external attack or internal revolution? As a political scientist, I am not aware of any scholar who performed such a “head count,” but I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer turned out to be “revolution.” Israel still has many surrounding enemies, but at the moment, its greatest danger is from within – the present government itself being the mortal threat.
First, some relevant, general world history background. Countries have self-imploded as a result of all sorts of governmental idiocies, and even from some occasional sane but not really thought-through policies. Among the first type: Mao’s “Cultural Revolution,” a misnomer if there ever was one. By trying to “peasantify” the entire country back in the 1950s and 1960s, this socio-economic policy led to death by starvation of (approximately) 20,000,000 people! (Not a typo: twenty million.)
The result, after Mao’s demise a decade later the governing Chinese Communist Party was anything but “communist” – opening the doors to what can best be described as “regulated capitalism.” In short, although the Communist overlord did not officially fall, the country’s regime underwent a “silent” revolution i.e., politically much the same, while socio-economically completely different.
Fifteen years later, a similar liberalizing attempt by the Soviet Union’s Mikhail Gorbachev led to the total collapse of the Communist Party and its regime. His “Glasnost” policy was a last gasp attempt to resuscitate a moribund economy, but too little, too late. In hindsight, it might seem that he had intended to slowly turn Russia into a democracy, but that was certainly not his objective (as he admitted later).
Recently, the world has been witnessing moves in the opposite direction: from liberal democracy to autocratic “democracy.” The quote marks here signify the use of “democratic” means to undermine democracy itself, as was seen in Poland a decade ago and continuing in Hungary today. The term “democracy” still holds great sway among the general public, so that wannabee autocrats don’t officially change the name of the system; rather, they empty it of most/all real democratic content, all the while keeping the regime’s name intact.
The same trend is happening today in the United States, with President Trump doing things that are borderline unconstitutional: attacking a foreign country without Congressional approval; sending in “troops” to various states to ferret out illegal immigrants, thereby bypassing local state authorities; detaining or threatening deportation of legal foreign residents who have not been accused of any criminal behavior; withholding federal funding from colleges and universities deemed “hostile environments”; using the Justice Department to investigate wrongdoing of public officials (most recently the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank!) in order to pressure these constitutionally independent public servants to toe Trump’s official policy line, etc.
From here to Israel. The various attempts of the present Netanyahu government to introduce “Judicial Reform” (opponents call it a “Judicial Revolution”), have by and large not succeeded… as yet – but efforts continue apace in the Knesset. Meanwhile, what PM Netanyahu has done is to basically rid himself and the country of dis/loyal (the “dis” is from his own political perspective) high level officials: Defense Minister (Yoav Gallant), IDF Chief of Staff (Herzi HaLevi), MK Yuli Edelstein (Chair, Foreign Affairs Committee).
Most egregious of all are attacks on judicial/law officials. Justice Minister Yair Levin has made it his policy to completely ignore or bypass the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Yitzchak Amit), while simultaneously attacking and (still unsuccessfully) trying to fire Israel’s Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara for her constant legal opinions opposing the government’s intended anti-democratic legislation or actions.
Indeed, the latest brouhaha this past week shows how far some in the government are willing to go in the direction of non-liberal democracy. The Attorney-General has asked the Supreme Court to find PM Netanyahu in dereliction of duty for not firing Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister in charge of National Security (mainly the police), due to the latter’s being involved in specific police investigations – this, when the law specifically states that this minister is allowed only to set overall policework policy. (Leaving aside the outrageous fact that in his past, Ben-Gvir himself accumulated eight criminal convictions.) As a result, a few days ago several Likud MKs (as well as the Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich!) called for the prime minister to ignore any future Supreme Court directive demanding Ben-Gvir’s firing – clearly a Constitutional crisis of huge import, if that ever came to pass.
The public outcry was immediate, with former Supreme Court justices (including religious, certainly not left-wing, Elyakim Rubinstein) strongly criticizing any such anti-judicial behavior. Major leaders of Israel’s economy have also come out strongly against any such conduct.
Israel is particularly vulnerable to a “Hungary-like” autocratic takeover (with democratic dressing), because it lacks the clear separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches found in the U.S. and elsewhere. The Knesset today almost completely rubber stamps any governmental decision (by comparison, some Republican U.S. Senators have recently opposed a few of President Trump’s policies).
Moreover, Israel lacks a completed Constitution; its Basic Laws (sort of Constitutional Amendments) can be erased or changed by a simple majority of 61 MKs. Thus, only Israel’s judiciary remains as a bulwark against unfettered governmental action – precisely the reason for the latter’s attempts at “Judicial Reform.”
It’s not too bombastic to argue that Israel’s upcoming election is the most critical in Israel’s history. Should the present governing coalition win (for the past year or so, the polls show them losing by a significant margin), there will be little to stop it from eliminating any remaining checks on governmental power. Stay tuned for a no-holds-barred election campaign on both sides of the electoral map, with “constitutional democracy” hanging in the balance.
