I'm starting to wonder if democracy in Israel will die. If it does, I suspect we won't see it coming.
It may be like an unexpected loss in the best SuperBowl game ever played. Your team will lead by the narrowest of leads until the last few seconds of the game when, suddenly, there's an inexplicable fumble that the opposing team picks up and returns for a score. It'll be over in seconds.
In Israel, the death of democracy could happen that quickly. For Israel, such a death, at least as I see it, may be preordained by events from America.
American politicians have begun this week to impeach now-former President Donald J. Trump for a second time. Of course, in America, the purpose of impeaching a US President is to remove him from office. But this President, Trump, is already out of office.
Doesn't matter. Apparently, impeaching Trump a second time is the only way America can protect its democracy. Well, perhaps I'm wrong about that. Maybe I'm being influenced by what I see being said about Israel's own leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.
You see, in Israel, political events aren't much different from what you see in America. The effort to remove a hated National leader has proven to be as frustrating to politicians in Israel as it has been to politicians in the US. Only here, that frustration is worse because our national leader has been in office for more than 10 years, far longer than Trump's four years. Those who hate Benjamin Netanyahu just can't dislodge him through the voting booth. He's been too popular.
Democracy protects him. His opponents hate that protection.
So what do Netanyahu-haters in Israel do with a man like Netanyahu? They study what the haters in the US have done to their leader.
Israel's Netanyahu-haters learn from their American counterparts. They now use their own, Israeli-style trial, to destroy Benjamin Netanyahu's political career just as Americans use their style of trial to destroy Trump's political career.
Is this what democracy has come to in both countries, a platform upon which to crucify a hated leader? Looks that way, doesn't it?
This strategy of political crucifixion seems to make sense for Israel because those who hate Netanyahu are so inept, they have failed repeatedly at finding a viable candidate to replace Netanyahu. They have also failed to find a viable campaign message with which to draw votes to their candidates.
That's why they study US Democrats.
Israelis who seek success dumping Netanyahu now confer with US Democrats. Following America's lead, Israelis aim to use democracy's legal system to destroy the man they hate, a man they fear because they cannot beat him the democratic way--at the ballot box.
They will use, in other words, the new American approach to political change. Democracy's ballot box is too risky. It's too "old hat". It's too uncertain.
Netanyahu's enemies aim to "prove" that Natanyahu is a criminal. They claim they must do this because it's the only way to protect "democracy" from Netanyahu's corruption.
Sound familiar, America?
Israel's Netanyahu-haters have now finally succeeded, after more than a decade of failed attempts to have Netanyahu indicted for his "corrupt" behavior. They have criminalized normal political activities, a criminalization no other democracy has ever employed against any national leader, ever.
That is, Western democracies understand that criminalizing what has become normal political activity (trying to convince editors and newspaper owners to give a leader better news coverage) will have a squelching effect on all newpaper-leader meetings, lest news people find themselves accused (as in Netanyahu's court case) of accepting bribes from a leader to provide better coverage to that leader. Western democracies won't touch criminalizing such interactions. They believe that such interactons don't threaten democracy; they enhance it by keeping communication open between press and politician.
Doesn't matter. Israel's Netanyahu-haters have no fear of hurting Israel's democracy. The believe they are protecting Israel's democracy--by overthrowing one of a democracy's most hallowed traditions, the ballot box.
Some in Israel find it hard to accept that the way to protect democracy is by overthrowing democracy's most fundamental principles--voting, and freedom of the press. But these voices appear to be locked into the silent majority these days. Their voices are, for the most part, muted, ignored or side-lined.
Sound familiar, America?
If Netanyahu loses his court case, he could go to jail--for breach of trust and bribery, among other charges. In addition, if found guilty, he may also be forbidden by law from holding public office--ever again.
Is this political madness? Perhaps it is. Or, maybe it's just how democracy works these days.
I never learned that democracy included political execution-by-trial. I was taught that democracy was about fair play, fair laws, the fair implementation of law--and a fair hearing in court. I was taught that democracy was about the freedom of speech, fair elections and religious freedom. I guess I was wrong.
Perhaps this is how democracy will die in Israel. Perhaps democracy will be poisoned by a lethal combination of corruption and political madness. Perhaps this combination will prove to be the recipe that finally destroys the democratic institutions that so many have worked so hard and for so long in Israel to perfect--but who now find themselves powerless and silenced.
Is this to be our future? Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment