Yesterday’s Knesset vote on the so-called “Mofaz Law” marked a black day for Israeli democracy.
The law as passed allows any group of 7 members of Knesset to break away from their party and form an independent faction in the Knesset, or join another party. Until now, that could be done only if one-third of the faction’s members broke away. The new law makes it easier for members of larger Knesset factions to break away and further splinter the political structure of the Knesset. It is named for Kadima MK Shaul Mofaz, whom Prime Minister Netanyahu believes would be interested in leaving Kadima for the Likud with 6 other Kadima MKs, but not the 10 that would be needed to achieve one-third of the faction.
Israel’s form of parliamentary representation is very problematic to be sure. Members of Knesset are elected based on their placement on a national list of party members, and not based on the will of a particular constituency of voters. In effect, voters vote for a party, not for a particular representative, and the members of Knesset owe their allegiance to the party that places them high enough on the list to enter the Knesset, rather than to the voters who make up Israel’s population. The result is that there is no direct accountability of any member of Knesset to any definable group of voters, and the voters’ interests are thereby not the overriding factor in the MK’s decisions.
But the “Mofaz Law” weakens the democratic nature of Israel’s system even further. Now, a person can be elected on the slate of one party, and then break away from that party and its platform much more easily than he or she could beforehand. It is now much more likely that my vote will not necessarily result in my chosen platform being represented in the Knesset.
But let us take a step back. This vote took place on the fourth anniversary of the expulsion from Gush Katif and northern Shomron. We must remember that the expulsion took place against the decided will of the majority of Israeli voters, and against the stated policies of the governing party at the time.
The 2003 election featured Likud leader Ariel Sharon against Labor leader Amram Mitzna. Mitzna’s stated policy was to expel the residents of these communities in a unilateral gesture in the hope that the Gaza Strip would magically become a peaceful society living in cooperation with Israel. Sharon countered that policy with the statement, “The destiny of Netzarim is the destiny of Tel Aviv.”
Sharon won a huge victory in the election, with double the number of seats that Mitzna was able to achieve. Within less than nine months, Sharon himself introduced Mitzna’s policy as his own and began plans to destroy the homes and communities of 10,000 Jews in Israel.
In May 2004, Sharon’s own Likud party members voted in a nation-wide party referendum to oppose the expulsion plan. That vote should have prevented the Likud party from supporting the plan, and it should have thereby killed the plan completely. But Sharon chose to ignore the wishes of his own voters. He relied on the fact that his members of Knesset did not have to worry about the wishes of the Likud voters, but were more concerned about their own position within the party. He also fired three of his cabinet ministers and accepted the resignations of two others. Three of these five ministers were from his own party. Their votes against the expulsion would have prevented it from taking place. But in order to save his own political future, Sharon completely did away with all form of democratic procedure and rammed his policy through the Knesset over the objections of his own party and his own cabinet.
Many of the members of the Likud rebelled against Sharon’s position, and though he did manage to pass and execute the expulsion of these Jewish communities from their homes, the rebel Likud MKs gained in strength. Three months after the expulsion, Sharon himself used the one-third rule to bring a significant number of Likud MKs who supported his policies out of the party, and formed an independent faction he named Kadima. Shaul Mofaz was one of those MKs who left with Sharon and is now in a position to mount a serious bid for Kadima’s leadership. Mofaz himself condemned the passage of the “Mofaz Law” and continues to insist that he has no desire to return to the Likud.
But what is most disingenuous about the entire sordid affair is the statement issued by the Kadima party following yesterday’s passage of the bill: “The Likud splinter law passed and with it the message that Netanyahu is a weak prime minister who needs to threaten his ministers in order to ensure his political survival.”
To be perfectly clear, the “Mofaz Law” is a bad idea. It further dilutes Israeli democratic representation and further distances the voter from the policies that govern this country.
But that having been said, my question to the Kadima party is why they think what Netanyahu did is so bad. After all, the Kadima party itself was created through exactly the same kind of moves they are accusing Netanyahu of. Only when Kadima did it, four years ago this week, the results were far more disastrous.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Who We Are Dealing With
It seems to me that in Israel, the media is suffering from the same disease as in the United States. They are simply afraid to say anything negative about US President Barack Obama or his policies. The difference is in the degree. Where in the United States, the media makes no attempt to hide its love affair with Obama – even admitting it openly in several instances – in Israel, the situation is somewhat more reserved. Here, we know that Obama is up to no good, but the media remains to afraid to say it openly.
Yet if any indication was needed to prove just how unfriendly Obama is toward Israel, take the developing nuclear arms race among the “Axis of Evil” states. Iran, which for years has been quite open about its nuclear plans and its earnest wish to “wipe Israel off the map”, tested a ballistic missile last week capable of hitting targets within 2000 km – which includes most of Europe and the American forces stationed there, as well as any target within Israel. This missile, operated with solid fuel rather than the more primitive liquid variety, has greater accuracy at longer ranges than previous missiles deployed by Iran. And the missile was test fired during Obama’s meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, timing that was surely no accident.
Yet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could not quite put her finger on why Iran is such a concern. In comments she made late last week, she stated that Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons would cause a nuclear arms race in the region, which would run counter to the interests of most Arab states and constitute a danger to America. Not one word was mentioned about Israel, or Ahmadinejad’s oft repeated threat to destroy this country.
Clinton’s complete naivete, or willful ignorance, is a very big reason why she should not be allowed to continue in her post. If the major threat to the US comes from a potential arms race in the Middle East, and not from the possibility that Iran might try to fulfill its threat to destroy another nation – and one that is strongly allied with the United States no less – then Clinton has quite a lot to learn about the world and is simply unqualified for her position.
Contrast this with President Obama’s very forceful response to the North Korean nuclear test this week, which was followed almost immediately by the testing of three long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Obama correctly condemned the tests and stated that they run counter to United Nations resolutions and that they pose a clear threat to both South Korea and Japan, “which the world must act against”.
Why is it that North Korea remains part of the “Axis of Evil” and warrants such stiff condemnation and calls for concerted international action against its nuclear arms program? Has North Korea voice any kind of clear threat against anyone? Has Kim Jong-Il threatened to sink Japan or wipe South Korea off the map? Has he attended a UN sponsored conference to do nothing other than call for the annihilation of another State? North Korea simply tested some of their own emerging technology, and this was enough for the US to issue the strongest condemnation of Barack Obama’s term in office.
Yet Iran, which openly and belligerently threatens another country; whose president uses every stage and opportunity to proclaim his desire to annihilate a member State of the United Nations, and who thumbs his nose at American interests in a large part of the world, merits no such condemnation. Not only that, Obama is interested in opening a dialogue with Iran in an effort to make nice and to appease Iran’s leaders into changing their mind.
Regarding North Korea, America’s leaders are very clear on where the threat emanates from and what it actually is – even though North Korea doesn’t state any threat openly. But regarding Iran, Clinton simply can’t bring herself to say that Iran’s threat is an open military threat against Israel. To her, the real threat is not important. It is only the perceived threat of a regional arms race that concerns her.
It is clear from this comparison that what is driving US policy toward Israel is nothing short of anti-Semitism. Let’s face it – where Israel is not the issue, the American response is in line with its historical posture. The US has always been strongly opposed to a nuclear North Korea. And rightly so.
But when Israel is the issue, no one’s home. Iran could fire a missile at Tel Aviv and wipe out a million Jews, and the current US administration would continue with its negotiations in the hope of preventing an arms race.
It is high time for Israel – the media, the government, and the nation as a whole – to wake up and understand the Obama Administration’s policies for what they are – a kick in the stomach to Israel’s existence. Prime Minister Netanyahu may already be aware of this and acting accordingly if his performance in Washington last week is to be continued.
But the logical conclusion is that Israel must find new allies to stand alongside us as America leads the rest of the world in turning against us. One such possible ally is India, which faces a grave threat from the possibility that Pakistan’s government will fall apart and leave its nuclear arsenal in the hands of al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Finding such new alliances is not so difficult. But it will take courage to do so.
This article has also been posted on www.israelinsider.com and on www.israelnationalnews.com
Yet if any indication was needed to prove just how unfriendly Obama is toward Israel, take the developing nuclear arms race among the “Axis of Evil” states. Iran, which for years has been quite open about its nuclear plans and its earnest wish to “wipe Israel off the map”, tested a ballistic missile last week capable of hitting targets within 2000 km – which includes most of Europe and the American forces stationed there, as well as any target within Israel. This missile, operated with solid fuel rather than the more primitive liquid variety, has greater accuracy at longer ranges than previous missiles deployed by Iran. And the missile was test fired during Obama’s meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, timing that was surely no accident.
Yet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could not quite put her finger on why Iran is such a concern. In comments she made late last week, she stated that Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons would cause a nuclear arms race in the region, which would run counter to the interests of most Arab states and constitute a danger to America. Not one word was mentioned about Israel, or Ahmadinejad’s oft repeated threat to destroy this country.
Clinton’s complete naivete, or willful ignorance, is a very big reason why she should not be allowed to continue in her post. If the major threat to the US comes from a potential arms race in the Middle East, and not from the possibility that Iran might try to fulfill its threat to destroy another nation – and one that is strongly allied with the United States no less – then Clinton has quite a lot to learn about the world and is simply unqualified for her position.
Contrast this with President Obama’s very forceful response to the North Korean nuclear test this week, which was followed almost immediately by the testing of three long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Obama correctly condemned the tests and stated that they run counter to United Nations resolutions and that they pose a clear threat to both South Korea and Japan, “which the world must act against”.
Why is it that North Korea remains part of the “Axis of Evil” and warrants such stiff condemnation and calls for concerted international action against its nuclear arms program? Has North Korea voice any kind of clear threat against anyone? Has Kim Jong-Il threatened to sink Japan or wipe South Korea off the map? Has he attended a UN sponsored conference to do nothing other than call for the annihilation of another State? North Korea simply tested some of their own emerging technology, and this was enough for the US to issue the strongest condemnation of Barack Obama’s term in office.
Yet Iran, which openly and belligerently threatens another country; whose president uses every stage and opportunity to proclaim his desire to annihilate a member State of the United Nations, and who thumbs his nose at American interests in a large part of the world, merits no such condemnation. Not only that, Obama is interested in opening a dialogue with Iran in an effort to make nice and to appease Iran’s leaders into changing their mind.
Regarding North Korea, America’s leaders are very clear on where the threat emanates from and what it actually is – even though North Korea doesn’t state any threat openly. But regarding Iran, Clinton simply can’t bring herself to say that Iran’s threat is an open military threat against Israel. To her, the real threat is not important. It is only the perceived threat of a regional arms race that concerns her.
It is clear from this comparison that what is driving US policy toward Israel is nothing short of anti-Semitism. Let’s face it – where Israel is not the issue, the American response is in line with its historical posture. The US has always been strongly opposed to a nuclear North Korea. And rightly so.
But when Israel is the issue, no one’s home. Iran could fire a missile at Tel Aviv and wipe out a million Jews, and the current US administration would continue with its negotiations in the hope of preventing an arms race.
It is high time for Israel – the media, the government, and the nation as a whole – to wake up and understand the Obama Administration’s policies for what they are – a kick in the stomach to Israel’s existence. Prime Minister Netanyahu may already be aware of this and acting accordingly if his performance in Washington last week is to be continued.
But the logical conclusion is that Israel must find new allies to stand alongside us as America leads the rest of the world in turning against us. One such possible ally is India, which faces a grave threat from the possibility that Pakistan’s government will fall apart and leave its nuclear arsenal in the hands of al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Finding such new alliances is not so difficult. But it will take courage to do so.
This article has also been posted on www.israelinsider.com and on www.israelnationalnews.com
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