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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
January 6, 2005
Is it "democratic" for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who brought his Likud party a landslide victory in an election campaign that focused on one issue --unilateral withdrawal - to suddenly embrace and implement the very position he explicitly and emphatically campaigned against without going
back to the voters?
Is it "democratic" for Likud Party Chairman Ariel Sharon to commit to honor the outcome of a referendum of Likud Party members on unilateral withdrawal - and then ignore the vote when he lost the referendum by a landslide?
Is it "democratic" for Likud Party ministers Netanyahu, Livnat and others who openly say that they know that Sharon's disengagement plan is a terrible mistake that Israel will pay dearly for - but opt to vote for the plan out of personal interests?
Is it "democratic" for Prime Minister Sharon to fire ministers before the vote on the disengagement plan in order to insure the passage of the plan?
Is it "democratic" for Prime Minister Sharon to refuse to test the public support for his disengagement plan via a national referendum because, as his office put it, he might lose?
Unfortunately, retreat supporters have stripped down the term "democratic" to the point that the answer to all the above questions is a resounding
"yes".
As veteran Israel Radio correspondent Ayala Chason put it this week, all of the above is "politics".
"Democracy", Chason explained, "is that a decision is passed by the Knesset."
The term "democratic" thus has no more moral weight than the term "legal."
It may be "legal" - but it is not "legitimate" for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who brought his Likud party a landslide victory in an election campaign that focused on one issue -- unilateral withdrawal -- to suddenly embrace and implement the very position he explicitly and emphatically campaigned against without going back to the voters.
It may be "legal" - but it is not "legitimate" for Likud Party Chairman Ariel Sharon to commit to honor the outcome of a referendum of Likud Party members on unilateral withdrawal - and then ignore the vote when he lost the referendum by a landslide.
It may be "legal" -- but it is not "legitimate" for Likud Party ministers Netanyahu, Livnat and others who openly say that they know that Sharon's disengagement plan is a terrible mistake that Israel will pay dearly for -- but opt to vote for the plan out of personal interests.
It may be "legal" -- but it is not "legitimate" for Prime Minister Sharon to fire ministers before the vote on the disengagement plan in order to insure
the passage of the plan.
It may be "legal" - but it is not "legitimate" for Prime Minister Sharon to refuse to test the public support for his disengagement plan via a national referendum because, as his office put it, he might lose.
This is not a question of semantics.
Our People's ability to endure relies on the legitimacy -- not just the legality -- of the system.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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