Comparison of Democracy of USA and Israel: A Difference of Opinion Acting Upon Uproar in Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                  

Israelis do not want their Democracy messed with.  They want things left alone in their government.  Netanyahu is all for upgrading it, especially the judicial part.  The results have been news and TV pictures of the whole country rebelling with demonstrations of miles and miles of Israelis walking with signs.

Netanyahu claims the Judiciary has more power than the rest of the government.  He's actually been harmed by it, personally, so he has even more motivation than others.  The most respectful American defense lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, sides with him and has given him the suggestion that he needs to change the judiciary to meet the standards in the USA, as I understand.  So what's the differences?

The USA has 3 sections of their Democratic government;  The Constitution of the United States divides the federal government into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. This ensures that no individual or group will have too much power. Each provides its own checks and balances.  Each branch of government can change acts of the other branches:

• The president can veto legislation created by Congress. He or she also nominates heads of federal agencies and high court appointees.
• Congress confirms or rejects the president's nominees. It can also remove the president from office in exceptional circumstances.
• The Justices of the Supreme Court, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, can overturn unconstitutional laws.
  
  Demonstrators against the judicial reform in Haifa, 11 January 2023. The protester's sign reads a quote from the Hebrew Bible: "How is the faithful city become an harlot! Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards." (Isaiah 1:21–23)

​Israel is a parliamentary democracy, consisting of legislative, executive and judicial branches. Its institutions are :

the Presidency, 

the Knesset (parliament), 

the Government (cabinet), 

the Judiciary and 

the State Comptroller.

Netanyahu says Israel's judicial has too much power.  He wants itfixed.  

Under Israel's current constitutional framework, all legislation, government orders, and administrative actions of state bodies are subject to judicial review by the Supreme Court of Israel, which has the power to strike down legislation and reverse executive decisions it determines to be in violation of Israel's Basic ...Law.  

Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992)

Passed on March 17, 1992, by the Twelfth Knesset. The law determines that the basic human rights in Israel are based on the recognition of the value of the human being, the sanctity of his life, and his being a free person.

The Supreme Court in Jerusalem is the highest court of Israel and the final court of appeals. The Court consists of 15 Justices and two Registrars. The head of the Supreme Court and of the whole judicial system is the President of the Supreme Court. Justice Esther Hayut currently serves in this position.

In contrast, the USA Supreme Court has 9 judges.  

Yariv Gideon Levin (Hebrew: יָרִיב גִּדְעוֹן לֵוִין, born 22 June 1969) is an Israeli lawyer and politician who serves as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice.

There is infighting going on between the judges.  Justice Minister Yariv Levin called Hayut a "political party" and accused her of trying to "set the streets on fire."  The lady, head of all the judges, said that The government’s planned judicial reform will “crush” the judicial system, Supreme Court President Esther Hayut warned at the annual convention of the Israeli Association of Public Law on Thursday.  She doesn't want the boat rocked at all.  

In January 2023, Levin unveiled a governmental plan for a legislative overhaul of the country's judicial system. The plan seeks to weaken the Supreme Court of Israel by granting the government effective control over the Judicial Selection Committee, prohibiting the court from ruling on the constitutionality of certain laws and regulations, and granting the Knesset the power to override any court ruling by a simple majority.

The comparison with USA is that When the Supreme Court rules on a constitutional issue, that judgment is virtually final; its decisions can be altered only by the rarely used procedure of constitutional amendment or by a new ruling of the Court. However, when the Court interprets a statute, new legislative action can be taken.            

Dershowitz's recommendation is:  Implicit in the first reform is the belief that the Supreme Court has gone too far in asserting its power over a broad array of issues. Proponents of the reform have a point. The Supreme Court should have only limited authority over largely economic and political issues, such as the gas deal with Lebanon or the ability of a particular individual to serve in the government. It would be reasonable for the Knesset to be able to override such decisions, which do not involve the fundamental rule of law. 

Courts have no special competence in those areas, and the popular will, as reflected by elected legislators, should generally prevail over the opinions of appointed judges. But when it comes to decisions regarding basic issues of civil liberties, human rights, minority rights, civil rights, due process, free speech, religious liberty, equal protection and other enduring aspects of individual liberty, the Supreme Court should have the last word. 

Resource:

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2023/07/bribery-charges-against-three-time.html

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-728405

https://supreme.court.gov.il/sites/en/Pages/Overview.aspx

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rlzbe0jjt#autoplay?utm

_source=email

https://embassies.gov.il/pretoria/AboutIsrael/State/Pages/

Israeli-democracy.aspx#:~:text=%E2%80%8BIsrael%20is%20

a%20parliamentary,Judiciary%20and%20the%20State%

20Comptroller.

https://www.usa.gov/branches-of-government#:~:text=

The%20Constitution%20of%20the%20United,will%20have%

20too%20much%20power.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/constitutional.aspx#:~:text=When%20the%20Supreme

%20Court%20rules,legislative%20action%20can%20be%20taken.

Israel's New Religious Government and their Supreme Court of Judges and Israelis

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                   

Marches, Demonstrations, people show they are up in arms over new government action in Knesset  

      Scene in Knesset chamber with a passing of the latest bill

Staging stormy protests, tens of marchers outside and opposition members in the chamber overnight 0, called the 63-47 passing of the “government’s judicial coup” on Monday, Feb. 20, a “death blow to democracy.”  

PM Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday was “an important and great day” and called for negotiations with opponents without prior conditions.                      

Netanyahu's first meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at the Erez crossing, 4 September 1996

Netanyahu has been prime minister earlier 2 different times previously.  ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has been serving as the prime minister of Israel since December 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021.

Leaders of the opposition before Netanyahu's new term were: 

Prime Minister	Naftali Bennett Yair Lapid

That is the NEW government's coup, made up of Orthodox member groups.  They are suspicious of their changes.  

                                               

Opposition leader Yair Lapid pointed to pro-law coalition voters, saying “History will judge you”. 

                                                

Naftali Bennett:  The coalition had recently limped from crisis to crisis, and faced the real possibility of the opposition clinching a majority to bring it down. Instead, Bennett and Lapid decided to end things on their own terms, announcing they will initiate legislation next week to dissolve parliament and send Israel to its fifth general election in three-and-a-half years.

Benny Gantz: “A black day for democracy.” 

Vocal members of the opposition rallies outside the Knesset and other parts of the country vowed to step up their campaign against “this key landmark in time since the state was founded” and “a betrayal of the Declaration of Independence.

In the Declaration was a section on borders that is interesting:

The borders were not specified in the Declaration, although its 14th paragraph indicated a willingness to cooperate in the implementation of the UN Partition Plan. The original draft had declared that the borders would be decided by the UN partition plan. While this was supported by Rosen and Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit, it was opposed by Ben-Gurion and Zisling, with Ben-Gurion stating,

"We accepted the UN Resolution, but the Arabs did not. They are preparing to make war on us. If we defeat them and capture western Galilee or territory on both sides of the road to Jerusalem, these areas will become part of the state. 

Why should we obligate ourselves to accept boundaries that in any case the Arabs don't accept?" The inclusion of the designation of borders in the text was dropped after the provisional government of Israel, the Minhelet HaAm, voted 5–4 against it. 

The Revisionists, committed to a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan River (that is, including Transjordan), wanted the phrase "within its historic borders" included, but were unsuccessful.                 

Thousands of Israelis hold signs and wave the Israeli flag as they walk in the streets of Tel Aviv, protesting the Israeli government's planned legal reforms. February 13, 2023. (credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90

63 lawmakers voted  destroy the House [Jewish Homeland],” they shouted from a sea of blue and white national flags.  47 voted against it.                                                

The Jewish Home (Hebrew: הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי, romanized: HaBayit HaYehudi) is an Orthodox Jewish and religious Zionist political party in Israel. It was originally formed by a merger of the National Religious Party, Moledet, and Tkuma in November 2008.

This appears to be a fight between the religious and the non-religious but nationalistic parties, and this reflects Judea and Samaria and the villages, towns and cities that have been built by more religious Jews aware of their historical history who favor living there again.  The area is divided into 3 sections, a,b,and c.  C is for building by Israelis, but Arabs have been encroaching on land here and also building.  A is for Arabs, B is for both.  The problem is that all of Judea and Samaria are eyed by the Palestinian Arabs as their future state of Palestine.  Their Palestine is to have absolutely no Jew allowed to live in it.  The Orthodox have risen to the occasion and want to be allowed to live in their areas without attacks from Arabs, protected by Israel.  It was their original homeland.  Jews are from Judea, after all. 

An aerial views shows Israelis holding flags as they demonstrate on a bridge on the day Israel's constitution committee is set to start voting on changes that would give politicians more power on selecting judges while limiting Supreme Court powers to strike down legislation, outside the Knesset, I (credit: REUTERS/ILAN ROSENBERG).                           

Associate justice nominee Elena Kagan meets with Senator Patrick Leahy on May 12, 2010, prior to the start of her confirmation hearings

How does USA select Supreme Court judges?

The Constitution does not set any qualifications for service as a justice, thus the president may nominate any individual to serve on the Court. In modern practice, Supreme Court nominations are first referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee before being considered by the full Senate.  

                                                  

Levin announces sweeping proposals to severely curtail judges’ powers; claims court’s intervention in decisions, Knesset laws harms democracy; opposition warns of ‘political coup.’

The reform bill’s author Justice Minister Yariv Levin pledged: 

“I won’t be deterred from pressing forward with my effort to repair the justice system so that it is no longer the province of elites and the aristocracy but belongs to everyone.” 

He called on opposition members to show responsibility and sit down and talk, because,” he said, “understandings can be reached.”

                                                     

1.One of the first sections passed would deny the High Court the prerogative to inpede at will parliamentary legislation.

 2. and the second would give the government coalition a majority on the judge appointments panel. These sections face two more readings before being passed into law while further sections are yet to be put to the vote in the plenum.

To be more specific:

He specified change in four core areas: 

1. Restricting the High Court’s capacity to strike down laws and government decisions, by requiring an enlarged panel of the court’s judges and a “special majority” to do so, and including an “override clause” enabling the Knesset to re-legislate such laws unless all 15 justices unanimously ruled to strike them down; 

2. changing the process for choosing judges, to give the government of the day effective control of the selection panel; 

3. preventing the court from using a test of “reasonableness” against which to judge legislation and government decisions; 

4. allowing ministers to appoint their own legal advisers, instead of getting counsel from advisers operating under the Justice Ministry aegis.

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Declaration_of_Independence#:~:text=The%20Israeli%20Declaration%20of%20Independence,Agency%20for%20Palestine%2C%20and%20soon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jewish_Home

https://www.timesofisrael.com/justice-minister-unveils-plan-to-shackle-the-high-court-overhaul-israels-judiciary/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu#:~:text=info)%3B%20born%2021%20October%201949,again%20from%202009%20to%202021.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naftali_Bennett

https://www.timesofisrael.com/bennett-we-made-a-tough-decision-but-it-was-the-best-for-the-country/

https://www.debka.com/judicial-reforms-opening-stage-carried-63-47-in-first-knesset-reading/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomination_and_confirmation_to_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States#:~:text=The%20Constitution%20does%20not%20set,considered%20by%20the%20full%20Senate.

Israeli Court Decision About Aryeh Deri

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                    

"Aryeh Makhlouf Deri (Hebrew: אַרְיֵה מַכְלוּף דֶּרְעִי; Arabic: أريه مخلوف درعي), also Arie Deri, Arye Deri, or Arieh Deri (born 17 February 1959) in Morocco, is an Israeli politician, currently serving as Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Health and Minister of the Interior and Periphery under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is one of the founders of the Shas political party.

In 1999, Deri was convicted of bribery, fraud and breach of trust; he was given a three-year jail sentence. At the end of 2012, ahead of the elections for the nineteenth Knesset, he returned to lead the Shas party.

Deri was convicted of taking $155,000 in bribes while serving as the interior minister, and was given a three-year jail sentence in 2000. He was replaced by Eli Yishai.   Due to good behavior, Deri was released from Maasiyahu Prison in 2002, after serving 22 months.

Over 100,000 people protest against the proposed changes to the justice system in Tel Aviv, on January 21, 2023. (Flash90)

Demonstrators come out in force to oppose overhaul of judicial system; 

rallies also held in Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba and other towns; 

Grossman: ‘Now is the hour of darkness.’  They have turned into huge rallies.  

On 20 November 2018, Israeli police ended a criminal investigation into Deri with a recommendation to state prosecutors that he be indicted for "committing fraud, breach of trust, obstructing court proceedings, money laundering, and tax offenses." In 2019, this recommendation was adopted in full by the state prosecutor, Shai Nitzan, but in 2021 the attorney general of Israel, Avichai Mandelblit, dropped all the charges except the tax offenses. Deri continued to serve as Interior Minister, and after losing the ministry with the formation of the thirty-sixth government of Israel, as an MK and chair of the Shas party.

Tens of thousands of Israelis protest against the government’s planned judicial overhaul, in Tel Aviv, January 21, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90).                    

                  Knesset Building in Jerusalem

On 2 February 2022, Deri gave a speech in which he accused his prosecution of being motivated by his Moroccan heritage, and expressed his intent to remain as leader of Shas. Deri led the party through the 2022 election, and returned to the Knesset after it won eleven seats. Deri became Minister of Interior, Minister of Health and Vice Prime Minister in the thirty-seventh government of Israel on 29 December 2022. On 18 January 2023, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that Deri was not allowed to hold a position as a cabinet minister due to his conviction for tax offenses.                              

As a result, Deri was consensually dismissed from the cabinet on 22 January; his dismissal will go into effect on 24 January which is today.                                          

David Grossman (Hebrew: דויד גרוסמן; born January 25, 1954) in Jerusalem,  is an Israeli author. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages.  In 2018, he was awarded the Israel Prize for literature. Grossman is an outspoken left-wing peace activist. He has been described by The Economist as epitomising Israel's left-leaning cultural elite.

Revered Israeli author David Grossman addressed the crowd. “The State of Israel was established so that there would be one place in the world where the Jewish person, the Jewish people, would feel at home. But if so many Israelis feel like strangers in their own country, obviously something is going wrong,” he said.

“Now is the hour of darkness. Now is the moment to stand up and cry out: This land is in our souls. What happens in it today, will determine what it will be and who we and our children will become,” Grossman said.

“Because if Israel will become different and far from the hope and vision that created it, God forbid, in a certain sense, it will cease to be,” he warned.                 

Netanyahu has done what I expected him to do in the first place.  "Leader of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish party Shas, Deri played a pivotal role in Netanyahu's return to power following Israel's November 1 elections.  The premier appointed him health and interior minister last month, but on Wednesday the Supreme Court said Netanyahu "must remove Deri from his position" due to a recent tax evasion conviction.  "It is with a heavy heart, with great sorrow and with an extremely difficult feeling that I am forced to transfer you from your position as a minister," Netanyahu told Deri during a cabinet meeting, according to a statement from the premier's office.

In Israel, which does not have a constitution, the Supreme Court currently has the authority to repeal laws it considers discriminatory or unreasonable.

Netanyahu's predecessor Yair Lapid, who attended the demonstration, on Sunday slammed the current government as a "circus".

"Netanyahu... must appoint a full-time health minister and interior minister today," opposition leader Lapid said in a video posted on Twitter.

"The citizens of Israel should not have to pay the price of this government's corruption and disorder," he added.                                  

 Lt Col. Jonathan (Yoni) Netanyahu, big brother to  Bibi

Throughout the course of his exceptional military career, which culminated tragically in his last battle against terrorists at Entebbe, Jonathan Netanyahu, known to friends and family as "Yoni," became one of modern Israel's greatest heroes.

Netanyahu is having the hardest time of his life, caught between the left and the right.  Unfortunately, the right is tarnished with crime-a tax invader, which has muddied up the water for the Orthodox.  I wonder what Yoni would a advise?  Well, Bibi already made his decision to let Aryeh go.  Now he needs Yoni's help.  

Resource:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/over-100000-estimated-to-gather-in-tel-aviv-for-largest-anti-government-protest-yet/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryeh_Deri

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230122-israel-pm-removes-top-minister-over-court-ruling