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Moshe Feiglin is head of the Jewish Leadership faction in the Likud and can be reached via the web site.
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By Moshe Feiglin
December 19, 2004
In Israel, the general public tends to think that the more the State is Jewish, the less democratic it will be. This view, created by the media, is also formed by lack of democratic awareness among the belief-based public.
We have argued that, on the contrary, the more Israel distances itself from its Jewish identity, the more it loses democratic characteristics and slides towards dictatorship.
This year on the third day of Chanukah -- the festival celebrating the victory of the Jewish spirit over the Greek invader, the Likud Central Committee members were asked to approve or reject the prime minister's proposal allowing the Labor Party to join the coalition government. Success would give Sharon a government majority for his plans to expel Jews and to give away parts of Eretz Yisrael.
It was a strange vote: there was no debate, not even an alternative proposal. Neither Jewish spirit nor democracy prevailed, not in the Likud -- and not in Israel
We are witnessing two interlinked processes. The first is the disengagement plan, and the second is Ariel Sharon's overwhelming desire to set up a unity government. The disengagement plan creates the political impasse that "requires" unity government as a solution.
Destruction of Democracy and the Disengagement Plan
What lies behind these two processes? Sharon has never provided a logical explanation for the idea of disengagement. Any objective analysis indicates that it will (a) cause Israel's security and economy to deteriorate, and (b) will create such a rift in the public -- that no one can foresee the consequences.
So why is Sharon doing it? Sharon understands that in the State of Israel the Left writes both history and the charge sheets. He has chosen this path because the Left has imposed it upon him. And why is the Israeli Left interested in evicting 8000 Jews from their homes in Gush Katif and Shomron?
The root of the matter is the Jewish identity of the State. Leftists have always aspired to universalism at the expense of nationalism. The flight from national identity forces the Left to flee from the heart of the country, to flee from the historical sites that form the cradle of the Jewish nation. It is difficult to abandon your Jewish identity when you walk around Hebron, Rachel's Tomb, Shechem, and the Temple Mount.
Add to the problem of geographical identity the fact that, in these very regions, settlers -- in their lives and in their communities -- are taking Judaism out of the religious corner and returning it to history, and you create the ultimate nightmare of the Israeli Left.
Disengagement from the country is based on disengagement from its Jewish identity.
At all costs the State must not become Jewish ... and if this means the destruction of democracy, so be it.
Suspension of Democracy and the Creation of a Unity Government
In a democracy, the citizens determine the path to be taken by their country. For this purpose, different ideas are presented to the public and the voters make their choice.
Naturally, the personalities are also a consideration, but the ideas should come first. If, after the results are known, the coalition and opposition join forces, this means, in effect, a suspension of democracy.
For example, a trade commissioner is appointed to prevent an unhealthy joining of forces in the economy. If large companies create a monopoly, the commissioner breaks it up. A unity government is a monopoly in the marketplace of ideas. The competitors join together and there is no longer any significance to the market forces -- the voters.
With a unity government, the meaning of democracy is destroyed.
What is the history of unity governments in functioning democracies? In the United States, the very idea is absurd. Nothing like a unity government, a rotation, or other such trick has ever been employed by the Republicans and the Democrats, even when the election of Bush/Gore rested on a few hundred problematic votes in Florida.
In Britain of 1940, Churchill and Atlee formed a unity government in the face of the German threat -- as did Eshkol and Begin (for the first time in Israel's history) after Nasser deployed the Egyptian army in Sinai. It seems that in certain extreme cases the public is completely united, and it can be understood why, in such circumstances, democracy can be suspended.
But is this really the case in Israel today? Is the issue in question beyond dispute? Not at all! At least half the nation does not regard the settlements as a "danger to Israel's existence" but, on the contrary, believes that flight from Yesha creates the danger! Can democracy be suspended in order to ignore the wishes of half the population?
In Israel -- apparently so. To eliminate the Jewish identity of the country, it is permissible, even desirable, to suspend democracy. As we have seen, this is the basis of the disengagement process. Neither the media nor the judicial establishment will stand in the way.
These days of Chanukah gave further proof that an attack on the Jewish character of the country is also an attack on its democratic nature.
Only a truly free and democratic approach can relight the Jewish menorah -- the symbol of the State of Israel.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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