The Current Israeli Constitutional Crisis: What it is Really About
Ze’ev Jabotinsky
By Steven Jonas
This column is based in part on a previous column of mine, “The Clockwork Bibi” which itself was based on earlier columns of mine on Bibi Netanyahu, Israel and the Palestinian conflict. Yes indeed, I have been writing on this subject for quite some time.
What the Political Conflict in Israel over the Power of the Supreme Court Appears to be About; and What it is Really About
It is well-known that currently in Israel there is a major conflict underway over the power and role of the Supreme Court. Indeed, the nation is very closely divided on this issue. And as is also well-known, the current Right-wing government wants to severely curtail the Supreme Court’s power. In a nation that has no Constitution* but merely a set of laws and traditions, some of which pre-date the founding of the Nation of Israel in 1948, the struggle is about whether there is to be maintained a separation of powers between the legislative/administrative branch of government — and in nations with a parliamentary system those two functions are merged — and the judicial branch. (To my knowledge, among nations which have some form of democratic government, the separation of powers into the three branches found in the United States is unique, a function of its 18th century separation of powers established in its Constitution.)
On the surface (as least as it is perceived in this country) the struggle has to do with the criminal charges that Netanyahu has faced for quite some time now, and the role of the Supreme Court in making the final decision on that matter. However, in my view (and surely in the view of other observers, although this issue does not receive very much attention, at least in this country), THE issue — presently spoken of in muted terms by all parties — is rather the matter of the total expulsion of the Palestinian Arabs from what right-wing Israelis call “Greater Israel” and the Palestinians call the “Occupied (Palestinian) Territories.” “Greater Israel”/”the Occupied Territories” is the land that lies between the undisputed Eastern boundary of the State of Israel proper that was established after the end of the Six Day War in 1967 and the Jordan River, which is the boundary between Israel (including the Occupied Territories) and the nation of Jordan.
This subject — that is the creation of “Greater Israel” from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea — has been talked about in Israel since its founding, but most often in muted terms. Over time, the far-right political forces which would attempt to raise it, occasionally with violence, as with the assassination of Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin, were quickly, for the most part, shut down. However, now such voices, such as the current Minister of Defense, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the current Minister for National Security, are not only members of the Government, but obviously hold powerful positions in it. To my knowledge, neither man currently openly supports Palestinian Expulsion, but in the past each, along with members of their respective Parties certainly have expressed such positions, in one way or another.
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Source: OpEdNews.com