opening the door to corruption

 

"Jerusalem Evening"

In yesterday's New York Times Opinion section, a guest essay by Adam Shinar:

In Israel, the Worst May Be Yet to Come

--------------------- [excerpt] ------------------ TEL AVIV -- Many Israelis are bracing for what comes next.  Anger over a bill that eliminates the courts' power to overturn government and ministerial decisions on grounds of reasonableness, and the constitutional overhaul of which it is part, had set off huge protests for seven months.

Just before the bill's passage on Monday, more than 1,100 air force reservists, including more than 400 pilots, declared that they would refuse to turn up for duty if the legislation was approved.

In the aftermath of the vote, tens of thousands of protesters, in a collective cry of rage, blocked highways, shut down major intersections, and confronted a police force intent on dispersing them with horses, water cannons and brute force.  Dozens were arrested.

As the bill cleared Parliament 64-0 -- all 56 opposition members walked out to boycott the vote -- petitions challenging the legislation were quickly submitted to the Supreme Court in the hope that it would strike down the new law.  That hope, however, may be dashed.

All the proposed components of the overhaul -- a concerted effort to entrench the government's hold on power -- are amendments to the Basic Laws, the body of legislation that serves as Israel's de facto constitution.

...The new law certainly does damage to Israel's democracy -- for example, it opens the door to corruption -- but whether the court will determine it denies the democratic nature of the state is very much an open question. --------------------------------------- [end / New York Times excerpt]

("Opening the door to corruption" is what our U.S. Supreme Court did with its Citizens United decision, allowing corporations to give unlimited money to politicians.)

------------------------------ reader comment:

Bruce Rozenblit

Kansas City, MO

There was a time in both America and Israel where conservatism meant individual liberty, freedom from government interference, and religious liberty.  Now conservatism means authoritarian centralized power, government mandates on people's personal lives, imposition of religious edicts and ethnonationalism.

The old conservatism was based in principles of democracy.  The new conservatism is based in totalitarianism which is a fancy term for a dictatorship, underpinned by a specific religiosity.  In America that religiosity is evangelical Christianity.  In Israel it is ultra orthodox Judaism.

Israel was forged from the fires of murderous ethnonationalism.  It is painful to see how that which birthed it is taking over its society.

As in America, minority rule is the gateway.  In Israel, coalitions were formed to gain a majority which gives outsized power to the minority.  In America, gerrymandering, the Senate, the filibuster, the electoral college give outsized power to the minority.

In Israel, the shift to authoritarian power is the result.  In America, this same process is unfolding with the rise of Trump and the assault on individual liberty.  We should really stop calling these people conservatives or even ultra conservatives.  They are undemocratic totalitarians.  They seek dictatorial power.

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