Tel-Chai Nation

Caroline Glick's written that the prime minister, in order to succeed better in the next election, is going to have to draw some inspiration from politicians like Donald Trump in order to win, and certainly do better:

Thanks to the Trump administration, today Netanyahu has the diplomatic opportunity to implement his vision in relation to the Palestinians. Netanyahu set out that vision in the lead up to the inconclusive elections in September. It involves moving past the failed and mordant peace process with the PLO, and securing Israel’s national and strategic interests in Judea and Samaria by applying Israel law to the Jordan Valley and the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria.

But now that the international path is open, a domestic obstacle has risen to stop him. That obstacle is an opposing revolution – the judicial revolution initiated by retired Supreme Court president Aharon Barak some 25 years ago. Just as Netanyahu is on the verge of completing his revolutionary work, so the legal fraternity that embraced Barak’s revolution is poised to complete Barak’s.

All of Netanyahu’s actions have been taken against the wishes of Israel’s entrenched elites, whether in the labor unions or government service or the media. The economic elites that benefited from Israel’s socialist system opposed his free market reforms. The hidebound diplomats who were promoted on the basis of their allegiance to the idea that making peace with the PLO was the key to Israel’s diplomatic standing, opposed his view that international relations are based on common interests not on ideology or appeasement. The military for a generation was trained to believe that there is no military solution to terrorism.

All along, the source of Netanyahu’s power has been the voters. Without their support, he would never have achieved anything.

In stark contrast, Barak’s revolution is a revolution against Israel’s democratic system. Its goal is to transform Israel from a parliamentary democracy into a post-democratic regime controlled by unelected state prosecutors and Supreme Court justices who control all aspects of public life in the name of “substantive democracy,” and the “rule of law.”

For the past 25 years, with the support of the media and the cooperation of radical NGOs, the Supreme Court, the attorney general and the state prosecutors have seized the powers of Israel’s elected leaders by judicial decree and legal opinion. Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit’s decision last month to indict Netanyahu for behavior that has never been defined as criminal either in law or court precedent is just the latest bid to empty elections of all meaning and deny elected leaders, and the voters who elect them, the sovereign power to determine the path that Israel will advance along.

Obviously, Netanyahu’s revolution and Barak’s revolution cannot coexist in peace with one another. And so, by indicting Netanyahu and inserting the legal fraternity into Israel’s political system as the most powerful decisive force in the country in the midst of Knesset elections, Mendelblit, the justices and the prosecutors are seeking to complete their seizure of power. The only way to stymie them, and restore Israel’s democratic system by legislating checks and restraints on their powers, is by reelecting Netanyahu with a parliamentary majority.

The question though, after two consecutive inconclusive elections, is how can Netanyahu pull that off? How can he win, complete his life’s work and protect the democratic system that allowed him to undertake it?

The answer can be found in the political events that happened this week in Britain and America.

In Britain last Thursday Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative party won a stunning victory in the parliamentary elections that will enable Johnson to keep his promise to lead Britain out of the European Union against the wishes of Britain’s hidebound elites.

Johnson did three things to secure his victory. First, when he replaced Theresa May as premier in July, he pledged to improve the deal she made with Brussels to implement Brexit. He then went to Brussels, and improved her deal.

Then, Johnson went to Parliament and asked it to approve his deal so that he could take Britain out of the EU. Since there was no parliamentary majority to leave the EU, as expected, Johnson’s efforts were unsuccessful.

So he called new elections. He told the pubic, he did as much as he could, but if voters wanted to get Brexit done, they needed to give him a parliamentary majority to get it done. And so, last Thursday, they did just that.

Netanyahu’s vision of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and the final burial of the fake, deadly peace process with the PLO is widely supported by the public. But when he set it out ahead of the last elections, it went nowhere – and for good reason.

Rather than using the powers of his office to move it forward as far as he could, and so prove his seriousness, Netanyahu sufficed with a speech. The public, unconvinced of his seriousness, was also uninspired to vote. So he failed to secure a victory.

If Netanyahu wants to win in March, he needs to do more than give a speech. Like Johnson, he needs to take practical steps to implement his vision.

In Netanyahu’s case that means passing a government decision to apply Israeli law to those areas and dissolve the military government and civil administration.

Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit will angrily reject the decision. The media will howl and radical NGOs will petition the court. In under an hour, the justices will produce an injunction barring its implementation.

Then Netanyahu will go to voters and ask for a mandate to reform the legal system in order to implement the government’s decision in accordance with the public’s will.

I'd say that's a very good approach. He could even appear before Congress about all this. So he'll have to start taking visible steps to be convincing.

Labels: Israel, Knesset, londonistan, United States, US Congress