Demonstrations
“Would Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator, have cared about protests in the streets?” asked one pundit? “Did Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, care about the millions in the street protesting his government? The major difference here is that the army and police have not resorted to violence and gunfire to quell the protests.”
Another pundit said, “Contrary to some who say Netanyahu is too weak to control his party and stop the head-long rush to Judicial Reforms, rather he is the evil Wizard of Oz, pulling the strings and levers and sending out a smokescreen from behind the curtain.”
Some analysts posit that the current government and their supporters see those demonstrating simply as those who voted against the present government. The chorus of international heavy weights, said one observer, mean very little to to the coalitions’ supporters or to PM Netanyahu.
Ben Bernake, former head of the US Fed, Michael Bloomberg, billionaire former mayor of New York, even Miriam Adelson, widow of the late billionaire Sheldon Adelson, have come out against the Judicial Reforms. Lawrence Sommers, once an economic advisor to the US government, has said the Judicial Reforms lead Israel to the edge of an abyss. But none of these entreaties , from economists, jurists, diplomats and top former security officials, seem to have any effect.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset after Judicial Reforms pass first reading.
Judicial Reforms Pass First Reading
On Monday, March 13, 2023, some of the key Judicial Reforms passed their first of three readings before the reforms become law. Among them, according to Ynetnews, was the law overriding the Attorney General’s decision that Prime Minister Netanyahu, under indictment for three felonies for corruption, must recuse himself from voting on the reforms as him voting would be a conflict of interest. Should this pass the third and final Knesset vote Netanyahu can then come out of the shadows and become the face of the Judicial Reforms.
On Tuesday, Likud stalwart David Amsalem brought up a bill, the so-called French Law, that would would essentially block the prosecution of a serving Prime Minister, like Netanyahu, at least until he was out of the Prime Minister’s office.
According to the TimesofIsrael, one of they bills would “make it possible to imbue laws with preemptive immunity against judicial review.” This would allow the Knesset to overrule the High Court or any court. “The legislation grants immunity from High Court review to laws …that come into conflict with Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws.” This ‘override law’ takes effect if only 61 knesset members vote in favor. And any law the High Court justices strike down could simply be re-legislated with the addition of the immunity clause.
This law was brought before the Knesset special committee and passed by a majority of nine to six, moving it to a vote in the Knesset. At the committee meeting chairman Ofir Katz said “Democracy is preserved, no legal entity in Israel will be allowed to stage a coup d’erat.” To that MK Efrat Raiten of Labor said, “You are destroying democracy.”
The laws, if passed into law on the third reading, would go into immediate effect, and extend one year into the next Knesset, which can extend the law indefinitely. Other reforms include laws to give the government appointed panel absolute control over the selection of judges. The Netanyahu government expects to enact all of these sweeping reforms within two weeks, before the Knesset takes the Passover break.
Hints Of An Impending Putsch
Other moves that would lead to a “dictatorship” involve simple things, like Netanyahu appointing the head of the Bureau of Statistics. According to observers, this would put the facts that were released to the public in the hands of the Prime Minister. Also, choosing the head of the new National Library, who now is a former state prosecutor who put Bibi on trial, and who Netanyahu wants to oust. “A putsch by any other name is still a putsch,” said one pundit.
Today, anyone who opposes the present government and the Judicial Reforms is labeled an ‘Anarchist.’ Observers say this is a new word that replaced the epithet “Leftists.” Couple this with the statements by the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, Herzi Halevi, who recently said he prefers “Dictatorship to anarchy.” Reservists who have stated they would refuse to serve should the reforms pass fall into this category of ‘Anarchist.’
Speaking at a rally on Saturday night in Tel Aviv, while an estimated 500,000 people demonstrated around the country, former Justice Minister Tsipi Livni addressed the crowd with this opening statement. “Hello fellow Anarchists.”
Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara
The Attorney General Pushes Back
Gilad Peled, a reserve general in the air force who was suspended and Amichai Eshed, the top Tel Aviv cop who was fired by Police Chief Shabtai at National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s insistence were both reinstated. The latter when it became clear he was innocent of the charges of leading a reserve pilot’s revolt. The former by order of the Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara after being fired illegally by Ben Gvir,.
On Tuesday, March 14th, at the dedication of a new police station in the Negev region, Police Commissioner Shabtai told the audience, that included Ben Gvir, that “Without legitimacy from the public we have no right to exist as a police force.”
Also on Tuesday, police summoned Knesset Member Zvika Fogel, one of Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength) party members, to investigate if he incited terrorism when he verbally backed extremist settlers who torched Palestinian homes and cars in the West Bank town of Howard. This followed the murder of brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv as they drove through the town. Ben Gvir called the move part of the continuing harassment of his party and the right by the Attorney General.
What To Expect
One analyst said that should the reforms become law, one of those on the list to be replaced would be the Attorney General. Should the new laws pass then Ben Gvir would have his way with the police. Any illegality he commits, and he has been arrested numerous times for disturbing the peace and has a record so radical that he was bared from enlisting in the Israeli Army, would be made legal. The same holds true for anyone in the present government, or anyone the present government favors. Since they hold the slim majority in the Knesset, they could pass any override law to obviate any court decision.
Similarly, any illegal outpost put up in the West Bank would immediately be legalized. There are also moves by Ben Gvir to enact the death penalty for terrorists. The ultra-nationalists now have control, with Netanyahu’s permission, to enact all sorts of laws they’ve long wanted.
Speaking in New York, Finance Minister Smotrich predicted a compromise on the overhaul that he said the ‘mainstream’ would accept. He told Citibank executives that the “noise” over the overhaul would “settle down.” Observers think the statements were possible but not probable.
Right Or Left?
One of the common responses to those protesting Judicial Reforms is that the “Leftists” have had control of the country long enough. Starting with former High Court Chief Justice Aaron Barak who the “Right” accuse of a revolution in the courts. The reforms, they say, will allow the “Right” to take over from the “Left.” One person interviewed said “The left lost the election. Get used to it. Tough luck.”
Many of those who support the Judicial Reforms point to the Israeli withdrawal of the Gaza Strip settlements. “It was the Leftists who did that,” said the interviewee. When it was pointed out that in fact former Gen. Ariel Sharon, always a staunch Likud supporter until he broke off to start his own right-wing party, was in charge of the withdrawal. “That’s because he became a Leftist,” said the interviewee.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has come out in favor of immediate and in-depth negotiations about the Judicial Reforms that he said was necessary because “the situation is very difficult and worrying.” He also said that the legislation should be abandoned before the country falls into an abyss. Critics of Herzog’s speech called him a “Leftist.”
Backing The Unknown
One observer said that the a basic problem with these reforms is that they are not thoroughly understood by those supporting them.”Few people really understand how the High Court works,” said the observer.” The observer added, “If a coalition with a slim majority in the Knesset approves a bill that means, in reality, that the head of the ruling party controls which laws are passed or not. In the present case that is Netanyahu.
But, points out the observer, what happens if it is not Netanyahu, but someone far worse, like the ultra-nationalist Ben Gvir, or ultra-nationalist Finance Minister Smotrich, or even current Justice Minister Levine, who has been as obdurate as an iron curtain in his refusal to hesitate for even a mili-second in rushing the reforms into law. These current reforms could find not a dictator who may or may not be moderate but one who is malevolent to the core. History abounds with such examples.
Locke Or Hobbes
“It reminds me of the strife between Locke and Hobbs,” said one scholar. “He came up with his philosophy after the overthrow of King James II in the ‘Glorious Revolution of 1688.’
According to a paper in the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, “John Locke showed how governments and people should behave. He developed a philosophy that emphasized three points:
According to Locke, the natural condition of mankind is a “state of nature” characterized by human freedom and equality. Locke’s “law of nature”—the obligation that created beings have to obey their creator—constitutes the foundation of the “state of nature.” However, because some people violate this law, governments are needed.
People voluntarily give government some of their power through a “social contract” in order to protect their “natural rights” of life, liberty, and property.
If a government fails to protect the natural rights of its citizens or if it breaks the social contract, the people are entitled to rebel against the government and create a new one.
As Thomas Hobbes wrote,“The ideal form that government should take is an absolute monarchy that has maximum authority, subverting mankind’s natural state (one of war of one man against another, as man is selfish and brutish) and creating societal order in the process.”
The scholar pointed out that Netanyahu apparently favors Hobbes over Locke.
Medicine
Israeli scientists have developed the world’s anti-bacteria mRNA vaccine. A team lead by Prof. Dan Peer, VP for R&D and head of the Laboratory of Precision Nano-Medicine at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at TAU, has synthesized in a lab a vaccine that adhere to human cells leading to the production of viral proteins.
According to a paper published in Science Advances, the human immune system becomes familiar with these proteins and learns to protect the body in the event of exposure to the real virus. The team of Israeli scientists developed methods to combine two breakthrough strategies that circumvents this protection to obtain a full immune response.
Tourism.
According to YnetNews, Jerusalem has introduced two-hour guided double-decker bus tours that will pass through the Western Wall and the Old City as well as other landmarks.
