By Malcolm Dash
It’s still too soon to declare Netanyahu’s governing coalition doomed, though some might argue it’s on life support. Or that the much-needed judicial reforms are dead on arrival; legislation that was demanded by and pledged to the voters during the election campaigns. What’s more, this is a democratically elected, homogeneous government with a convincing majority. So, one may wonder why this crucial legislation has so far not been enacted.
Over the past thirty years, High Court judges have made many decisions based on their own worldviews, which are often influenced by progressive liberal ideology. They have issued numerous statutory rulings by exercising authority that they arrogated to themselves. The jurists have effectively transformed the High Court into a supra-legislative body. They have overridden parliamentary legislation and provided the attorney general with unsurpassed powers to decree which laws the government could or could not implement. The proposed judicial reforms that the current government wishes to enact would simply align the Supreme Court and the Attorney General’s office with the legal systems of the world’s most advanced democracies.
Why, then, is the government unable or reluctant to enact these judicial reforms? Is it because of the ongoing, well-organized, and well-funded public protests that verge on anarchy? Is it the threat of a soft military coup, with army reservists refusing to serve if the judicial reforms are approved? Then there are the commercial threats made by high-tech companies to conduct their banking overseas and even relocate the company to another country. In essence, this is the same as the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign promoted by anti-Israeli organizations worldwide.
All these threats do have an impact on the administration; they pose a real and significant assault on the normal functioning of the nation. But since only 2% to 3% of the population is part of the protest movement, the 250,000 to 300,000 protesters, most of whom live in Greater Tel Aviv , do not speak for the rest of the country. They are supported by a small group of elites who rile up the protesters to a fever pitch. Many of this ‘smart set’ are disgraced, failed former politicians and high-ranking military personnel.
More than 60% of Jews support the government’s reforms. The remaining population is divided between those who don’t hold an opinion and a hard core of approximately 25% who vehemently oppose the changes. A determined majority government ought to be able to confront and defeat this protest movement. Be that as it may, the authorities appear impotent to fully implement their promise of judicial reforms.
The opposition to the enactment of the government’s judicial reforms is not the true cause of its incapacity. No, it’s a far more serious threat, and it originates from within the “deep state,” which consists of the legal establishment, mainstream media, academics, the civil service, high-ranking military officers, and police officers, all working together to bring down the government.
They are attempting to overturn the outcomes of free and fair elections under the pretence that the government is illegitimate and they are rescuing the nation from dictatorship.” They are convinced that their activities are all in the best interests of democracy.
The left realized many years ago that they could not win elections outright. As a result, they began to seize control of where the real power lay. The mainstream media became the epicentre of their left-wing agenda. In parallel, they filled the nation’s institutions, including the legal fraternity, the civil service, the security services, and academia, with ideological leftists.
Many political observers in Israel recognized what the liberal progressive left was doing and forewarned that the right would win elections but never govern. Dr. Martin Sherman was in the vanguard in alerting the public and the lawmakers about the left’s penetration of the institutions where genuine authority is exercised. Many years ago, he wrote The Limousine Theory, in which he compares the chauffeur of the limousine to the government and the backseat occupants to the institutions of the state.
He wrote: “Why a limousine? Well, in a limousine you have a driver in official uniform and a smart cap, who is charged with driving the vehicle. He holds the steering the wheel in both hands. Sometimes he decides to turn it to the right, and sometimes to the left.
Sometimes he decides to step on the gas, and sometimes the brakes. So the uninformed observer could easily reach the conclusion that the driver also decides on the destination of the vehicle.”“But of course he would be wrong.” “it’s the backseat occupants who decide on the final destination and not the chauffeur.”
I also issued warnings that the nation’s institutional centers were evolving into hotbeds of left-wing activity. I specifically cautioned that the judicial system had seized the authority of the parliament. I forewarned of the anti-democratic authority of the High Court in a piece I wrote more than six years ago titled “The Rule of Law or the Rule of Lawyers.”
If I and many others understood the changes that had taken place in the “Deep State, in the establishment, government institutions, the media, and among the elites, then assuredly the Likud and other right-wing parties knew too. Well, obviously they didn’t know or naively thought they could overcome the opposition en passant. If their information gathering apparatus had been on the ball, the present Netanyahu government would have approached judicial reforms differently. The opposition’s well-prepared and forceful negative messages could have been neutralized.
If only the government had done its homework, perhaps by now the reform legislation could have been passed and we’d be on the path to liberation from the tyranny of the “deep state”.
Malcolm Dash was until retirement Director of Operations at the Israel Institute for Strategic (IISS) Studies www.strategic-israel.org. In 1968 he made Aliyah from Cape Town where he had studied economics and business administration at Cape Town University, served in the IDF including service during the “1973 Yom Kippur” war and work in a volunteer capacity with the Public Diplomacy Section “Hasbara” of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He later founded the Association for Israel-international Affairs and successfully arranged private briefings and seminars for the embassies of China, India, and Vietnam.
The reprehensible NY slimes, desperate to save hamas, is trying to sow discord in Israel. Israelis should not take the bait.
https://youtu.be/CJvKNWGsd7A?si=AC0sc6x2TABlnJ9K
PM demands explanation of New York Times report which claimed the leadership of the Mossad encouraged protests against judicial reform.
During the Clinton administration it became obvious that Labor was going to lose it’s grip on Israeli politics as the old guard passed. This was proven by the new computer models being developed. Clinton sent teams of political experts to influence the political machinery, the media, the elites and the academics to bring them together against the political right and the people. They were openly working in Israel to accelerate the process we see in play now. The new left seeks to dominate Israel by controlling the statist bureaucracy and the judiciary as so well described above. They and their globalist sponsors hope to govern all humanity…
Although we see no direct evidence of the fact, we cannot avoiding reaching the conclusion that it is no coincidence that their decisions, based on “reasonableness”, always match the directives of the US or EU.
While the “elite” is trying very hard to disrupt the elected government, it is doubtful that they really want to risk a civil war. Their desires are achieved when they remain in power behind the scenes.
The government’s approach should be straightforward rather than hidden behind the scenes. They need to make their lawmaking clear for one and all, so that the 2 – 3% or 25% or whatever the case may be see the change, while those who elected this government get what they signed up for.
Although we see no direct evidence of the fact, we cannot avoiding reaching the conclusion that it is no coincidence that their decisions, based on “reasonableness”, always match the directives of the US or EU.
I am not a citizen of Israel, so I am speaking from the standpoint of an American who is strongly supportive of the State of Israel. I understand that the author was aware for some time of the problem posed by the Israeli Supreme Court and the Left’s gradual take over of the secular institutions of the country, including the civil service in government and the military, as well as the media. However, I am not sure that foreknowledge of this alone would have made a difference.
In a book, COVID 19 and the Global Predators: We are the Prey, Peter Breggin, MD and Ginger Breggin describe the way global predators have decided they ought to have the power to run the world for their benefit, and have decided that national sovereignty needs to end. These are not businessmen who believe in competition and free markets. The global predators are billionaires who have no feeling of loyalty to the country of their birth. They are, however, loyal to the Chinese government and to their wealth. If people are hurt or die in the process of their assuming supranational power, that is of no concern to them.
I look at Israel as having global predators either in businesses inside Israel or outside of Israel. Global predators have decided that the world needs a great reset, and COVID 19 was the beginning of that reset. Power is to be transferred from sovereign governments to these global predators who are trying to undermine any government on the face of this earth in which the heads of government believe in national sovereignty. The USA must be destroyed. Former President Trump who is running again must be prevented from running or destroyed, because he is a patriot and wants to put America first. This is the one thing they cannot tolerate. PM Netanyahu likewise, wants to put the needs of the Israeli people first. This cannot be allowed. He will have to be undermined or destroyed.
The current US President is a befuddled puppet of the global predators, but is also a global predator himself, having earned millions of dollars through his connections to the CCP.
In both the US and Israel, the power of the people to vote in the government they want is teetering on the edge of extinction. The global predators are trying to quickly destroy both governments before the people can get together and unite in a plan to defeat them.
There is no one person who can solve this problem by him or herself. Not PM Netanyahu nor Donald Trump, if he were to be elected President. This will require the country as a whole to mobilize and unite against the enemy. The reason is, both countries may be brought to a standstill by the actions of these global predators.
I don’t know any other way to defeat tyranny but to identify it as such, and to unite en masse to defeat them. When the people unite, and when they turn to God for help, there have been ways to defeat tyranny. The Solidarity movement in Poland is one example. Another couple of examples were the Israeli War of Independence and the Six Day War. It will have to be a movement on that order of magnitude, because those who want to destroy our countries have a lot of money and power and have been working on this plan for many years.
The deep state is not stupid but lacks imagination