In recent years, US politics has grown increasingly polarized. Ahead of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn its 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, tensions reached a boiling point. Now, they are boiling over. Articles on an internal rift beyond political and ethical disputes have been written. It appears there are now two nations residing in the same territory.
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Israel must look west toward Washington with a certain sense of horror and reject the import of disputes at the heart of American society for the creation of domestic polarization in Jerusalem. In contrast to what they would like us to believe, in Israel, there is still broad consensus, including on the subject of abortion. This is one of the areas in which Israeli society has found a healthy pragmatism to regulate contradictions and tensions on the basis of concern for individual cases as well as society at large. On the other hand, despite Israel's relatively liberal policy on abortions, the consensus around family values is maintained.
By Friday, figures looking to divide the Israeli public on the US decision according to "dark" and "enlightened" forces made their voices heard. Behind these calls in the media are political strategists hired to work their magic ahead of the election. The Left will try to scare the public into believing radicals are planning to realize their vision of a Halachic state despite the fact that on an ethical issue such as surrogacy, both the religious Right and the radical Left are cooperating: The LGBT and religious communities are marching together under a black flag to bring about the enslavement of women into procreation slaves.
The religious want more children in Israel, while the radical liberals want to distance mothers and women from the family unit and childrearing. It would be best if this contest was called off. It would be preferable to reach temporary agreements, the likes of which are not handed down by a court.
And this is where the most difficult constitutional issue enters the picture. In the US, the bastion of liberal democracy, it suddenly turns out that the public's approval of the judicial branch is directly related to its approval of its rulings. The president himself attacks the Supreme Court, which now faces the kind of existential threat that is more serious even than the one it faced during the riots on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2020. Justices are persecuted and threatened with murder. In the US, highly esteemed newspapers raise questions about the very need for a supreme court. There, the distance between a threat and action is far shorter than here in Israel.
The lesson for our Supreme Court is simple: Build public trust and avoid the strong tendency in recent years of ruling on every single issue. A court is a place without compromise, and the world suffers from a shortage of compromise.
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