Prof. Paul Eidelberg
Apropos of the Arab terrorist attack in Ariel, let the truth again be told
– loud and clear: By virtue of the Sharon government’s failure to
eliminate the Arab terrorist network in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza – especially
in Jenin – this government, headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon –
never mind his poodle, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer -- this government,
I say, is an accomplice to murder, the murder of Jewish, women, men, and children.
This government of national unity – really of national suicide -- has
abdicated its primary responsibility, which is to provide for the security of
the Jewish people. Accordingly, the Sharon-led government cannot rightly be
regarded as legitimate. That Prime Minister Sharon nonetheless has the support
of a majority of the public is a sad commentary on the public’s declining
moral sensibilities.
Mr. Sharon was elected to put an end to Arab violence. Instead, more than 500
Jews were murdered during the first 20 months of his premiership, more than
all that were murdered during the SEVEN YEARS AND FIVE MONTHS that elapsed between
Oslo, September 13, 1993, and February 6, 2001, when Sharon was elected Prime
Minister. By his own public admission -- see his September 26, 2002 interview
with the Jerusalem Post -- Sharon has DELIBERATELY refrained from destroying
the Arab terrorist network. He has therefore betrayed the people who elected
him.
It is in this light that we are to understand why the “Quartet”
(the US, the EU, the UN, and Russia) – to whose formation the Sharon
government never objected -- has arrogated to itself the power to determine
Israel’s future. It has presented Mr. Sharon with a “road map”
to a Palestinian state, a road map to Israel’s oblivion.
In any other country, the Sharon government would have been toppled long ago.
That it has not – that Sharon remains in power -- is a commentary on how
Israeli democracy has corrupted the mentality of the Jewish people and rendered
this people utterly powerless.
But now let me tell you something you may not know about Israeli democracy. In Israel we have democratic elections. We elect a prime minister, and then he proceeds to do almost anything he damn well pleases! That’s Israeli democracy. Which is why I have said, again and again, “every few years or so the people of Israel exercise their political freedom and then relapse into servitude.”
There is only one effective way of correcting this despotic state of affairs. Israel needs to increase the power of the Knesset. To do this we must (1) eliminate fixed party lists, (2) exclude Knesset Members (MKs) from being members of the cabinet, and (3) institute multi-district or regional elections.
Fixed party lists means oligarchy. It enables inept and incorrigible politicians like Shimon Peres to remain in public life. It allows diverse party leaders to become members of the cabinet where they can ignore public opinion with impunity. It makes the Legislative branch of government subservient to the Executive branch. If proof is wanted, no Labor- or Likud-led government has ever been overturned by a Knesset vote of no confidence!
To increase the power of the Knesset, we must scrap the existing parliamentary electoral system whereby the entire nation constitutes a single district, and replace it with regional or multi-district elections. There are many diverse systems of regional elections, and several avoid the problem of gerrymandering. Do not be deceived by any party in Israel that proposes an electoral system in which only a small fraction of the Knesset would be chosen by the voters. (The problem is explored in depth in my book JEWISH STATESMANSHIP: LEST ISRAEL FALL.)
There are two extremes in designing a parliamentary electoral system: one can maximize the power of the parties or one can maximize the power of the voters, i.e., the people. Israel’s present system maximizes the power of the parties, more so than in any of the 75 other countries that have democratic elections for the lower (or only) branch of the legislature!
Hence we must diminish the power of the parties and increase the power of the people by enabling the voters to choose their own personal representatives. MKs will then be individually accountable to their constituents, among whom they will be able to develop a local power base. This will terminate their subservience to their party bosses on the one hand, and to the government on the other. Israel will then have, for the first time since its re-establishment in 1948, a system of checks and balances. No longer will an Israeli prime minister like Ariel Sharon deliberately refrain from pursuing a policy of zero-tolerance for Arab terrorism. Jewish lives will no longer be expendable for “reasons of state.”
And once we strengthen the Knesset, the Knesset will put an end to the judicial despotism of Israel’s Supreme Court, which scorns the heritage of the Jewish people and arrogates to itself the power to prescribe the moral and religious character of this country.