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Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of , Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
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By Dr. Aaron Lerner
October 22, 2004
"The prime minister's office says it opposes a national referendum on the disengagement plan because the plan may be defeated at the polls." Channel Two Television News, 13 September 2004
"... and if we arrive at the possibility of signing a peace treaty between Syria and Israel which would require a significant withdrawal a decision on this would be made in a national referendum. In other words, the people will decide on what it is prepared to give up in order to reach peace. I do not see this as being subject only to a Knesset decision." Prime Minister Rabin on Israel Radio, 1 August 1994
There is no law on the books that prevents a prime minister from winning an election by promising the voters one thing and then doing the opposite.
And while ministers swear to "uphold the State of Israel and its laws, to faithfully fulfill my role as a member of the Government", since many genuinely believe that their greatest service to the State is making sure that they become prime minister some day, there is nothing legally stopping them from voting in favor of disengagement even though they are confident the plan is fundamentally flawed - and even dangerous - because they feel that opposing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon may jeopardize their chances to become prime minister.
And while the 40 Likudniks sitting in the Knesset are there because 925,279 Israel citizens thought they were giving them a mandate to oppose disengagement, no one expects that the Supreme Court would force them to honor their Knesset pledge to "faithfully discharge my mandate in the Knesset."
This isn't a legal question.
It's a moral one.
Until Monday evening Sharon's team could argue that they were absolutely certain that the public changed its mind and supported retreat.
Now they admit that they aren't so sure.
I appreciate and understand my leftist colleagues who hold that the "the ends justify the means."
I also frankly don't doubt that the Israeli police and IDF could effectively pull off a brutal and swift evacuation of the Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip with casualties limited to some broken bones.
But that isn't the question.
The social contract that keeps our divided nation together isn't a legal one to be searched for loopholes but a moral one.
As we start a new Jewish Year it is my fervent hope that our leaders have the wisdom to put this social contract ahead of their lust for victory at any price.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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