By
Uri Avnery, 30.9.06
HAD
HAMLET been a reserve soldier in the Israeli army, he might now declare:
"Something is rotten in the State of Israel!"
And
indeed, something is rotten -
-
The President of the State refuses to suspend himself, in face of eight
individual accusations of sexual harassment. He whines about a monstrous
conspiracy against him and points at Netanyahu's men in the Likud.
-
The Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense refuse to resign, in spite of
the overwhelming majority of the public's expressed lack of confidence in Ehud
Olmert (70%) and Amir Peretz (82%). Instead of agreeing to the establishment of
an independent judicial commission of inquiry, they have set up an examining
committee that has already lost the confidence of the majority of the public -
even before it has started to investigate the events of the Lebanon War.
-
The Chief-of-Staff, under attack from retired and serving generals, declares
that he "will not take off his uniform until somebody tears it off."
-
The chairman of the Knesset Foreign and Military Affairs Committee is indicted
for fraud and perjury.
-
The Minister of Justice is on trial for pushing his tongue into the mouth of a
female soldier.
According
to the polls, the overwhelming majority of the population is happy with their
personal situation (80%) but depressed about the situation of the state (59%).
So
what to do?
Simple:
just change the system.
THIS
IS a typical Israeli reaction. Perhaps typically human.
When
a crisis threatens to upset the foundations of our perceptions, we tend to turn
away from the main issue and concentrate all our attention on some detail. Thus
we are relieved from questioning our basic beliefs and the world-view we are
accustomed to. We take some detail, as small as possible, and put all the blame
on it. That’s it! Found it! That's the guilty part!
As
the old song goes: "All because of a small nail!" So when a major
disaster occurs, we find the small nail that caused it, and we need not look
further.
For
example: the Yom-Kippur war. Why did this bloody war break out at all? Why
didn't we accept President Anwar Sadat's earlier offer of peace in exchange for
the return of the Sinai? Why did our Ship of Fools blithely sail from the
Six-day war to the Yom-Kippur war on a sea of arrogance?
No,
such questions were not asked. But what was asked? Things like: Why
didn't the army intelligence department warn us that the Egyptians and Syrians
were about to attack? Why weren't the reserve units called up in time? Why
weren’t the "instruments" (tanks and artillery) moved to the canal?
It
was called "The Omission". That was the slogan of the mass protest
movement that sprang up and swept away Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan.
That's
like emptying the ashtray when a car breaks down. Now something similar is
happening.
THE
POLLS show that the public has no confidence in the leadership. But the public
does not say: We voted for these leaders, so we are to blame. That would be an
unpleasant admission. What they say is: It's not our fault. So who is to blame?
The "system", of course.
That's
because our parliamentary democracy does not assure the Prime Minister a full
term of four years. He can fall before that. It also compels him to include in
his government leaders of the coalition parties, even if they are quite
incompetent to direct their ministries. The Prime Minister cannot plan
long-term policy, nor put capable experts in charge of the ministries.
That's
very bad. Therefore, we must adopt the American system. The people will elect a
president, who will serve at least four full years. He will choose a cabinet
composed of outstanding personalities, each one an expert in his field. Thus
Zion will be redeemed.
THIS
IS the purest snake oil - one bottle to cure all illnesses, without pain and
without delay.
First
of all, one cannot simply transfer a political system from one country to
another. Every state has its own tradition, its own specific culture, its own
social set-up. A political system must grow from within. It cannot be imposed
on another people. When one tries to do that, the society adapts it to its own requirements
and changes it beyond recognition. (Japan after World War II springs to mind.)
Only out-of-touch professors in ivory towers could imagine that the illnesses
of a society can be cured by an ideal political system copied from another
country.
That
has already been proven in Israel: under the influence of some professors, our
"system" was changed some years ago. It was decided that the Prime
Minister would be elected directly, separately from the Knesset elections. But
soon it became obvious that this system was worse than the one before it. So
the Wise Ones took counsel and changed the whole thing back again.
But
there's no need for us to go through that experience ourselves. In order to
appreciate the advantages of the presidential system, it's enough to look at
the situation in its homeland: the United States.
What
has this system achieved there? Indeed, the president has at least four full
years, but many would add "alas!" When it is discovered that a
complete idiot has been elected and embroils his country in disastrous
adventures, he cannot be removed. In our parliamentary system, as in the United
Kingdom, a Prime Minister can be removed with comparative ease. Tony Blair will
be gone within a year, while George Bush serves out his full term.
Are
the American ministers more competent than ours? Is Donald Rumsfeld less of a
disaster than Amir Peretz?
Moreover,
in order to be elected president, a candidate needs huge sums of money. Such
heavy money can come only from interest groups, lobbies and large corporations.
The American system is corrupt to the core - a corruption so deep and wide, it
makes the sins of Olmert & Co. look innocent.
BUT
LOGIC is not the key to this discussion, because the demand for system change
is serving as a cover for something much more sinister: the call for a Leader.
Such
calls always arise in times of crisis. When there is a feeling of defeat and a
climate of distrust of the old leadership, people long for a strong father.
Democracy looks weak and rotten, especially faced with the legend that the
politicians have "prevented the army from winning." A strong leader
solves problems with an iron fist. A policy of dialogue and agreements is
something for weaklings.
It
must be clear: the proposal to adopt the presidential system is nothing other
than a disguised call for an all-powerful leader. One has only to look at those
who propose it.
The
foremost advocate of "system change" is Avigdor Liberman, the leader
of the "Israel Our Home" party, composed mainly of immigrants from
the former Soviet Union. This is a party of the radical Right - to use an
understatement. In other countries, they might be called by another name.
"Israel
Our Home" stands for unbridled nationalism and xenophobia. It is more
radical than Joerg Haider in Austria and Jean-Marie Le-Pen in France. It calls
for all Palestinians to leave the country, including the Arab citizens of
Israel proper, who constitute 20% of the population. That does not prevent Ehud
Olmert from declaring publicly that he would like to have this party in his
government. (When Haider joined the Austrian government, Israel recalled its ambassador
from Vienna.)
Liberman,
who wants to be Minister of Defense, has set five conditions for joining the
government, headed by the demand for the adoption of the presidential system.
It is quite clear who his candidate for president is: Avigdor Liberman.
The
polls say that if elections were held now, Liberman's party would get 16 seats
in the 120-seat Knesset (compared to 11 seats in the present assembly). To
this, one must add the nine seats occupied in the present Knesset by the
"National Union", whose leader, a knitted-kippa-wearing general,
publicly demands the expulsion of all Arabs from the occupied Palestinian
territories, and the withdrawal of democratic rights from the Arab citizens of
Israel itself. When such parties constitute a fifth of the voting public, there
is certainly cause for concern.
I
BELIEVE in Israeli democracy. It is an incredible phenomenon, considering where
most Israeli citizens or their parents came from: Czarist and Communist Russia,
the Poland of Pilsudsky and his heirs, Morocco, Iraq, Iran and Syria - in
addition to those born in colonial Palestine under the rule of the British High
Commissioner. Like the resurrection of the Hebrew language, which has no
parallel in the world, this democracy is a miracle. (This means, of course,
democracy in Israel proper. In the occupied territories, a very different
situation prevails.)
I
don't believe that there is a concrete danger of the rise of fascism at
present. But we have to be on our guard, every day and every hour. Several factors
may promote fascist tendencies here: the feeling of defeat in war, the legend
of the "the stab in the back of the army", lack of confidence in the
democratic system, a widening gap between rich and poor, incitement against the
national minority described as a Fifth Column.
That
is more than a small nail.