Hope everyone had a spiritual holiday and an easy fast. I have written about the meaning and importance of the High Holidays before: introspection, forgiving, repentance, charity, and prayer. Nowhere, nowhere did I mention politics. Yet, at the service I attended, the Rabbi found it necessary to do so. It was a vehemently pro-Israel sermon so I had forgiveness in my heart (after all it was Yom Kippur). But he also launched into a diatribe against the “extreme right” (code for Bibi) in Israel trying to destroy its democracy. I am not a big fan of political sermons from any pulpit. I am less tolerant of one from a Jewish pulpit. If you’re going to be political, at least present both sides. Perhaps his sermon hit its mark because I decided to write about it.
There are currently massive protests going on in Israel. Roads being blocked, threats of military inaction, resignations, water canons. I didn’t understand it until I spoke to a friend in Israel. The short version: There is a power struggle between the executive branch the judiciary. I said to him “Wait. Doesn’t your constitution define responsibilities, separations, and limits?” Ready? He said “Israel has no written constitution!” I didn’t know that.
When the UN Gen Assembly partitioned Palestine and created Israel (UN 181), it was assumed they would create their own constitution. It never happened. Several attempts were made but all fell short. Israel evolved into a system of what they call “basic laws” which enjoy a kind of semi-constitutional status. This has become increasingly inadequate leading to the protests.
A constitution establishes basic principles of law, gov’t structure, places limits on gov’t to protect the minority, defines separation of powers, and protects human rights. It was, and is, even more important for Israel. It would lend credibility to the only democracy in the Middle East. And yet, in 75 years, they couldn’t get it done.
It is interesting that Ben-Gurion, in ’48, was against it. His argument, in a nutshell, was only a small minority of global Jews are currently in Israel. The state does not have the right to impose a constitution on the millions who have not yet arrived. A rigid constitution cannot account for the diversity of religious principles of worldwide Jewry. It might even lead to a cultural war.
In today’s Israel, however, the lack of a constitution has opened the door to gov’t confusion and abuse. The Supreme Court has granted itself the power, to not only opine, but to strike down legislation without having a case before it. Bibi’s claim is that it virtually eliminates the authority of the 2 other branches. When he tried to pass legislation to overhaul the judicial system, he was accused of increasing his own power enough to become king. Poof….protests, riots.
To those who so easily criticize Israel, told-you-soers, I would like to remind them it took us 8 years to write our constitution….and we’re still amending it. When we were four score and seven years old, we were in the middle of a Civil War, slavery was legal, blacks and women couldn’t vote own land or sign legal dox. So zip it! It may surprise some that I won’t even pretend to present an answer. Who is right? Don’t know. I do know this. Some structure and balance is necessary in order to preserve Israel’s democracy. People cannot be trusted to always do the right thing. In 75 years, the quest has proven to be difficult and elusive. Failure to find it is possible but not an option without inflicting enduring damage. Where’s Solomon when you need him?
“Our Constitution…is an experiment, as all life is an experiment.” -Oliver Wendell Holmes
