...It would not be an exaggeration to say that a majority of Israelis hold right-leaning views. The extensive representation of the right in the current coalition, which by the rules of democracy should accurately represent the people's range of views, proves this claim.
But a strange thing happened in Israel: though the Right was voted into power, the media and many non-parliamentary bodies expect it to abide by the values of the Left. Why? Because they believe the Israeli public is not smart enough to make political decisions, or because, as opposed to the select few in the Left, they have not been blessed by the wonderful light of enlightenment. As far as they are concerned, the Right is qualified only to flounder around in the darkness of their popular religion or their chilling conservatism – certainly not to govern. The Left sees itself as a moral watchtower, whose aim it is to correct the public's views, by force if necessary, or by use of outside assistance in the form of European funding.
The roots of this distorted view – prevalent in some Israeli political and media circles - can be found in the judicial activism revolution, which upgraded the legal system's status from a separate, independent branch that protected minorities, to a kind of legislative branch that can prevent the Knesset from passing laws it considers too right-leaning or too nationalistic.
There are also those who would attribute this calamity to the words of left-wing politician and pioneer Yitzhak Ben-Aharon. His disappointment over what he saw as the invalid election of Menachem Begin in 1977 led him to declare that "if this is the people's will, then the people should be replaced."
...it is clear that not everyone is happy with the fact that democracy can also benefit your political opponents. Democracy being defined as majority rule does not mean the majority has a right to abuse the minority. But it also does not mean that as a protected sector, the minority can use its immunity to rule over the majority. In Israel, the left-wing minority aims to rule over the right-wing majority...
I'll agree with that.
But that doesn't mean that all the laws floating around now are smart or applicable.
The US has Senate review and consent. There is registration for Foreign Agent status. The average Israeli politician in legislative matters is just that - average.
^
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment