Judicial reform poll

I would vote “No”.

Although the Beit Din Gadol has way too much power, pushing them into this leftist powerhouse that can and will fight the Knesset on everything, Netanyahu’s “reforms” basically cut out their legs from under them and are clearly just his way of trying to stay PM when huge swaths of the country hate his guts.

The real question is to ask supporters if they are willing to support the judicial reform if the price is the destruction of the Israeli economy and a severe undermining of the the zionist military capacity.

Like it or not, the hilonim (who hate us, much more than they hate the Arabs) are what makes Israel a modern industrialized nation whose technological advantages and strong economy are what make Israel a significant regional power (and whose secular leadership is strongly supported by most Americans of Jewish descent and by the largest political party in the USA).

Only a haredi who is willing to live in an autonomous community within an Islamic state (cf: the late Ottoman Empire) would see any viable alternative to the status quo.

coffee addict: are you sure the rioters were not just using the reforms as a pretext to protest losing the elections? if that was the case, no amount of hasbara would have been enough.

jackk: israel is a country of the jews so every jew has the right to meddle (to a certain extent) in the affairs of israel. obviously non-israelis cannot make the place unhabitable with their meddling – but all jews should have some say.

akuperma: what you say about the telavivians being the engine of the economy is true but only because they boxed out the rest of the society who the telavivians see as sub-citizens. As for the army, the telavivians do not serve in combat roles. They go to the army and serve in the choir or sit at some desk. the national religious, the russians and the druze are the combat soldiers.

what should they explain in their PR campaign? their not protesting the actual judicial reforms, their protesting the fact that they will lose the only government branch that is under their leadership…. if they lose the courts they lose their whole power! they will never back down!

It made a lot of sense to delay it. When you change the foundation of a countries governing system you can’t do it in the heat of the moment. You have to take things slowly, not just rush it through. If you rush it through, it look very much like an autocratic power grab even if it is actually expanding Democracy. When it comes to things like this it’s all about the optics.
Politically speaking, what has to happen now for the Reforms to go through is the right must hold protests in support of the reforms in a way that will bring international headlines too. -Namely shutting down the country all over again. This will show the world that there is a significant amount of the population that feels that these reforms are actually saving Democracy in Israel, and that the world should therefore stop making it their business as to which way it should go.

Besalel: While the “grunts” (a mid-20th century American term for ground forces, usually infantry) are increasing right-wing, the high tech (as well as American support) is what keeps Israel safe from attack from Iran and any major power whose intervention would include nuclear weapons. It is the high tech types in the IDF who are threatening to mutiny. While the “right” would win the ground war in a civil war, the country would be horribly vulnerable to someone such as Russia or China or Pakistan choosing to wipe Israel at a distance in order to support throughout the Islamic world.

P.S. The only sort of compromise that might work would involve allowing the upper class to be an autonomous minority with a Jewish state (we let them be frei, and they don’t object to us being frum). The would mean an military that operates as if everyone was frum, with special secular units for those who can’t stand kosher food or not doing melachos on Shabbos, secular “hesder” institutions or them to study their culture, and letting the seculars (regardless of whether they are Jews according to halacha) marry whomever and whatever they want, and even allow the secular to kill their own babies.
Whether such a compromise would interest the seculars is questionable, since a major theme of the zionist dream was always to purge Torah for Jewish life. However as the current crisis has shown, no matter how frum the average Israeli becomes over time, the economic elite are the ones who run the show, leaving Israel as both unstable and undemocratic.

CA,

Please explain why YWN wants to know this info ? This is not an election where everyone gets to vote and the result of the poll is worthless.

CA,

Then we agree.
Have a Chag Kosher V’sameach.

I do not believe all he scare stories bandied about by leftists. In fact, several investors expressed interest in investing in Israel and did not even mention the reforms. However, if a consensus can be reached, it will be better. If we can finally have a constitution, it will be even better. The problem is that Lapid, Gantz & Co. want to oust Netanyahu more than anything.

The Knesset reconvenes after Yom haAtrzmaut. The reforms are already tabled and ready for enactment. If there is no progress, Netanyahu can pass them and blame the Opposition.