FLAWED MEN AND FLAWED INSTITUTIONS
By Prof. Paul Eidelberg
February 21, 2002
Moral and intellectual anarchy reigns in Israel. The country is slipping toward the abyss. Although this anarchy could be significantly mitigated by the reform of Israel’s political and judicial institutions, much more will be necessary to save Israel from oblivion. As I have shown in my book DEMOPHRENIA: ISRAEL AND THE MALAISE OF DEMocracy, a hitherto unrecognized mental disorder permeates Israel’s ruling elites, a disorder that is infecting the general public.
Close to 800 Jews have been murdered, and many thousands more have been wounded and maimed for life since Oslo 1993. More Jews have been murdered under the premiership of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon than under any of his predecessors. Israeli governments have murdered the sense of justice in this country. Let us try to understand this.
To murder the sense of justice—the consequence of tolerating Arab terrorism via the government’s policy of self-restraint—is to destroy the natural instincts of normal human beings, especially the instinct of self-preservation. That instinct is also undermined when Israeli prime ministers shake the bloodstained hands of Yasser Arafat. These pedestrian politicians have destroyed Jewish pride or honor, which cannot but emasculate Jews and render them incapable of persevering in a protracted conflict.
When the sense of honor and of justice no longer animate human beings, they sink toward the subhuman level, where moral distinctions vanish. Venerable beliefs and values dissolve. Family values disintegrate. Gender differences collapse. Authority declines. Children no longer respect their parents. The foundations of civilization crumble. Barbarism returns, only now it is armed with technique.
The sense of justice and of honor are constantly under attack by Israel’s political and judicial elites, and this is destroying civic virtue and civilized behavior. The revolting example of a score of Knesset members abandoning their parties, in 1999, when their seats became vulnerable and joining some rival party produced no public outrage, no movement for reform. And what of the parties that rewarded this betrayal? This betrayal reveals not only the flawed character of many members of Israel’s parliament but of the flawed nature of the parliamentary electoral system.
Another example: When judges of the Supreme Court issue decisions that encourage perversion and permissiveness and even subversion in a country at war, one has to wonder not only about their unwisdom but about their connection with reality, hence their sanity. That they should legitimize gay marriages, that they should criminalize the spanking of a child, that they should quash the indictment of an Arab Knesset member who praises terrorist attacks against Jews—all this signifies more than abysmal ignorance of the prerequisites of civilized society. I see here degeneracy, a leveling of moral distinctions, a will to self-destruction. Thousands of years of human experience mean nothing to these judges who, in their arrogance, have no understanding of what primitive instincts had to be overcome before mankind emerged from barbarism to civilization. But the arrogance of the Supreme Court is a consequence not only of the conceits and superficiality of contemporary education, but also of its mode of appointment! Do not expect intellectual modesty from a court whose judges are accountable to one, a court that virtually appoints itself.
That the Knesset, i.e., the legislature, which enacted the law establishing the Supreme Court and has the power to reform this so-called High Court of Justice, allows it to legislate immorality, to undermine authority, and to encourage murder, is further evidence that the Knesset consists, to no small extent, of irresponsible fools and scoundrels.
The same may be said of Israel’s Chelm-like Government, which demonstrated its inanity or insanity by proclaiming self-restraint against Arab barbarians a form of strength—thereby manifesting the Supreme Court’s indifference to the murder of Jews. But again, this is not simply a matter of flawed human beings, but also of the flawed system of multi-party cabinet government, whose ministers, rather than risk the lost of their power and perquisites, risk the lives of Jewish men, women, and children!
This infamous regime must be erased!
© Professor Paul Eidelberg, All Rights Reserved
Professor Paul Eidelberg a Political scientist, author and lecturer is the co-founder and president of The Foundation For Constitutional Democracy with offices in Jerusalem and Washington, DC.
Professor Eidelberg was born in Brooklyn, New York. From high school he enlisted in the United States Air Force where he held the rank of first lieutenant. He received his doctoral degree in political science at the University of Chicago. While studying at the University, he designed and constructed the electronics system for the first brain scanner used at the Argonne Cancer Research Hospital.
Professor Eidelberg wrote a trilogy on the statesmanship of America'sfounding fathers: On the Silence of the Declaration of Independence; The Philosophy of the American Constitution, and A Discourse on Statesmanship.
Eidelberg joined Israel's Bar-Ilan University faculty in 1976. He haswritten several books on the Arab-Israel conflict and on Judaism:Demophrenia provides a psychological analysis of Israel's foreign policy. Jerusalem versus Athens and Beyond the Secular Mind apply Jewish concepts for an understanding of modern problems. Judaic Man develops concepts for a Jewish psychology. His most recent book, Jewish Statesmanship: Lest Israel Fall, provides the philosophical and institutional foundations for reconstructing the State of Israel. It has also been published in Hebrew and in Russian.
Professor Eidelberg is on the Editorial Board of Israel's premier journalNativ, as well as on the Advisory Council of the Ariel Center for PolicyResearch. He has written more than 800 articles for newspapers andscholarly journals in the United States and Israel.
Eidelberg has lectured before Israel's Foreign Office and has writtenpolicy papers for various Knesset Members. He chaired a panel discussion on the topic "Why Israel Needs a Constitution" at the 1997 American Political Science Association conference in Washington, DC. He has drafted a Constitution for Israel which has been published in Hebrew and Russian.
During the past two years, Professor Eidelberg has been conducting seminars on constitutions, diverse parliamentary electoral systems, Jewish law, and related topics at the Jerusalem center of the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy.
Address:P.O. Box 23702Jerusalem 91236 Israel E-Mail: pauleid@netvision.net.il