Having lost a series of elections and unable to offer an alternative to the current government, some on the Left in recent years have made a habit out of making new suggestions as to how a democracy in the Jewish state should look and behave.
The concept of majority rule, in which authority is granted to elected officials by the public, is an outdated business, isn't it? The same is true of the Knesset. These enlightened figures would have us replace both with new policies whose principle aim is to make it as difficult as possible for the boorish masses, otherwise known as the voters, to determine their fate. So as is customary in military juntas, the uniform-wearing officers who compare their country to the Third Reich and insist on re-educating its citizens become the moral lighthouses.
One of the thinkers who best represent the stream attempting to reinvent democracy is Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. In an article he published just last week, Kremnitzer proposed an original idea: Expropriate the responsibility for the appointment of senior public service officials from elected officials and task the president with that role instead.
The fact that one of Israel's past presidents, Moshe Katsav, was convicted of rape and his predecessor, Ezer Weizman, resigned following a financial scandal, were not enough to stop Kremnitzer from arguing in an interview with Maariv newspaper journalist Ben Caspit and former Strong Israel MK Aryeh Eldad that "presidents have a better record than prime ministers." Beyond the falsity of this statement, Kremnitzer's assertion begs an examination of Kremnitzer's own record. I am referring not to his personal but rather professional record, in which throughout the years, Kremnitzer has demonstrated ideological flexibility.
In 1996, Professor Yaakov Neeman was appointed justice minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first government. Just one day after he was appointed, an investigation was opened into Neeman that resulted in a resounding acquittal. But Kremnitzer did not bother to wait for the investigation's findings. Ignoring the presumption of innocence, Kremnitzer convicted Neeman in advance and determined that he could not be restored to the position, regardless of whether or not he was indicted. Three years later, a government upheaval brought Ehud Barak and the Left to power, thanks in large part to shell organizations and millions of dollars that flowed through NGOs that served as an illegal conduit for international donations to his campaign. Despite a critical report from the state comptroller and a criminal investigation only now underway, Kremnitzer went from determined to submissive and feeble.
"In his decision to open an investigation into the crimes pertaining to the funding of a candidate, the attorney general showed the danger of rushing to judgment," Kremnitzer said at a special conference organized at the IDI at the initiative of Barak and his associates, who were also in attendance. "The attorney general certainly has a role in the system's failure," he said, criticizing the saintly gatekeepers who, in this instance, did not act as required.
Another case pertains to the Supreme Court. Normally, Kremnitzer is oft to warn of the judiciary's ruin and reprimand the elected officials who dare to criticize it. But when left-wing organization B'Tselem recently referred to High Court justices as "war criminals," Kremnitzer, who is, incidentally, a member of B'Tselem's public council, was speechless. When I contacted the IDI's spokesperson to clarify Kremnitzer's position, I was told that "there is not much to say about it." According to the IDI spokesman, the public council is not "a particularly active body."
Kremnitzer is but a symptom of a problematic outlook, which both inconsistent and lacking in integrity, is accepting of democracy only when the ignorant rabble votes the right way.
