Israel Is A Democracy

Supporting Israeli democracy

(January 2, 2023 / JNS) 

We are Zionists who believe that when the people of Israel exercise the sovereign right to vote, the result should be respected by all, by non-Jews and Jews throughout the world, and by Jews within Israel.

After years of attacks on Israel’s right to exist voiced from the lofty halls of academia, left-wing social movements, church associations, unions, “human rights” groups and oh-so-many others, now comes a gaggle of American Jewish clergy and leftist Jewish leaders claiming that democracy is threatened by recent choices by Israeli voters who do not mirror their political views. The Diaspora dissenters denounce the newly-elected government of Israel. As pundit Elder of Ziyon wryly noted, “Israel cannot be considered a democracy unless its citizens vote for candidates that the New York Times fully approves!”

The many rabbis, cantors and others who wrote an open letter announcing their pledge not to invite members of the new Knesset’s ruling coalition to speak to their congregations or organizations, and to protest any such invitations by others, violate the very principle they purport to invoke—that the result of the exercise of democracy is to be respected.

So distracted are these writers by their disagreements with Israel’s voters that they attack as anti-democratic steps that make Israel’s government more, not less, responsive to those voters:

1. The denunciation of a proposed plan to make Israel’s courts more responsive to the will of the people, through the simple but necessary expedient of placing the choice of judges in exactly the same hands that hold that power in the United States: the hands of democratically elected, and politically responsive, government officials. No one who values democracy should attack this effort. Israel’s judges are currently chosen by individuals including unelected private lawyers who will appear before the judges they have chosen, and unelected sitting judges choosing their own successors. The proposed change is a move towards, not away from, democracy.

• The balance between respect of the rights of the religiously observant and the rights of the non-observant is itself a political choice. As supporters of the State of Israel we are confident that Israel will be capable of striking that balance in a respectful way, as the new government proposes to do. As supporters of Israeli democracy we are proud to respect the decisions of Israel’s voters on how to strike that balance, just as, as Americans, we trust that we in this country will be able to strike that balance in a way that is respectful of all of this country’s citizens. That, rather than the denunciations and proposed boycotts issued by the dissenters, is what it means to value democracy.

Reviewing the real and imagined examples of positions taken by various members of the incoming ruling coalition the dissenters deem unacceptable, a question comes to mind:

Where were your protests over extremism, violence, dispossession and hatred embraced by certain Arab members of Knesset who formally and explicitly supported the dismantling of the Jewish state?

If you did not publicly announce your disgust and a boycott of those who repeatedly denounced the Jewish nature of Israel, seeking either a supposedly binational or an Arab-dominated country; who have served as advisers to terrorists (MK Ahmad Tibi), who have praised bloodthirsty Jew-murdering terrorists (former MK Heba Yazbak) or provided imprisoned terrorists with prohibited tools for continuing their war against the Jews (former MK Basel Ghattas), who justified the kidnapping of Jewish civilians and who support the attainment by Iran of nuclear weapons (former MK Haneen Zoabi), and who call on Arabs to denounce allegiance to Israel and to commit themselves to the removal of every indicium of Judaism as a symbol of Israel, including the flag, the national anthem and the Law of Return (every member of the Joint Arab List and of Balad), then spare us the virtue signaling and just admit you oppose Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.

One might conclude the protesters don’t actually support democracy in Israel, but merely want it to reflect their own progressive values that they hold so dear while living in the secular United States. They are certainly entitled to that position but they should not pretend it is held in the name of democracy or that it comes from those with some special Jewish insight into how Israel should be governed.

Respect for democracy demands respect for the Israeli voters who have made Israel a thriving, prosperous and welcoming state, one to which Arab gays flee for safety, in which women have full rights, in which every person has complete freedom to speak and to believe and observe the teachings of any religion at the same time that the Jewish people, Jewish civilization and Torah flourish as they have not for two thousand years. No Jewish institution should shut its eyes, its ears, or its doors to this miracle of real progress.

SIGNED,

Lori Lowenthal Marcus, Legal Director of The Deborah Project and Alex Grobman, Ph.D., Senior Resident Scholar at the John C. Danforth Society, and advisory board member of the National Christian Leadership Conference of Israel (NCLCI).

LIST IN FORMATION, additions made once signatures and affiliations* confirmed.

Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D., Author, Professor Emerita, City University of New York Susie L. Rosenbluth, Editor and Publisher, The Jewish Voice and Opinion Gary E. Erlbaum, Board of Governors, Jewish Agency for Israel, Emeritus; Board of Directors, Coalition for Jewish Values; Former Chairman Philadelphia State of Israel Bonds; Former Chairman Israel Emergency Fund, Philadelphia; Board of Directors, Zionist Organization of America, Former Vice-Chair Philadelphia ADL Morton Klein, National President, Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) Kenneth Langone, Chairman, NYU Langone Medical Center and Co-founder, Home Depot Moshe Kinderlehrer, Editor, The Jewish Link Rabbi Saul Goldman David Levy, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, McGill University Rabbi Heshie Billet, Rabbi Emeritus, Young Israel of Woodmere Jim Fletcher, Executive Director, National Christian Leadership Council of Israel (NCLCI) Rev. Dr. Tricia Miller, President, National Christian Leadership Council of Israel (NCLCI) Daphne Patai, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Victor Rosenthal, writer Barbara Ledeen, former US Senate Staffer Judy Freedman Kadish, Director, AFSI Helene Fragman Abramson, AFSI Advisory Board Member Dr. Jonathan Gold, AFSI Advisory Board Member Dr. Joseph Frager, Former VP National Council of Young Israel; Exec. VP Israel Heritage Foundation Executive Board; Chairman of American Friends of Ateret Cohanim Gerald Platt, MD, President, American Friends of Likud Daniel Greenfield, Shillman Journalism Fellow, David Horowitz Freedom Center Myron Sugerman, Author Sarah N. Stern, Founder and President, EMET Richard Landes, Chair, Council of Scholars, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East Irving Weisdorf, Canadians for Israel’s Legal Rights Andrew Pessin, Professor, Connecticut College Bart Blatstein, former Vice Chair Philadelphia ADL; Executive Committee Member, National ZOA, Channa Newman, Ph.D. Douglas Altabef, Im Tirzu Board Chairman, Director; Israel Independence Fund, Director; B’Yadenu Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg Congregation Beth-El, Edison, NJ. Rabbi Emeritus Jonathan Hoffman, Former Vice Chair, Zionist Federation of UK and Ireland Charles Jacobs, President, Americans for Peace and Tolerance Ruth S. King, blogger at Ruthfully Yours Rabbi Dov Fischer, Young Israel of Orange County; columnist Stephen Leavitt, Editor-in-Chief, JewishPress.com Stephen Levin, former vice chair, Palm Beach ADL; Recipient of Haym Solomon Award, highest honor bestowed by the ADL; former vice chair Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County; Former President, Temple Emanu-El of Palm Beach Shani Hikind, Executive Vice President, American Friends of Ateret Cohanim Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, author Sherrie Savett, Esq., former Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia (JFGP) Board Chair and President;  Vice President JFGP’s Board of Directors; National Board Member, Americans for Ben Gurion University Stephen Klein, Chairman, KleinLife Mark Sperling, MD, Professor Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh Jonathan Rosenblum, columnist and author Kenneth Abramowitz, Founder and President, Save The West Rabbi Solomon Rybak, former Chair, Mizrachi USA Elizabeth (Liz) Berney, Esq., Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National Director of Research & Special Projects Rabbi Norbert Weinberg, author and educator Rabbi Yonah Gross, Congregation Bet Hamedrosh Brad H. Young, Ph.D., board member of NCLCI Ben Chouake, MD National President, NORPAC L.S. Sharrow, Author Dov Hikind, Americans Against Anti- Semitism Rabbi Ira Kronenberg Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, President, Israel Independence Fund Yochanan Visser, Middle East analyst Martin Hizer, Co-Director, Herut U.K. Rabbi Dr. Eliot H. Pearlson, Senior Rabbi,Temple Menorah, Miami Beach, Florida David E. Stein,M.D., founding president of The Mesivta High School of Greater Philadelphia; former Lower Merion Synagogue president Bud Newman, Past President and Board Chair, Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia Judy Kaplan Warner, writer Rabbi Bruce Bublick, Rabbi and Chaplain United States Air Force Air Force Reserve Ilan Greenfield, Publisher, Gefen Publishing House Lauri B. Regan, New York chapter president, executive and advisory board member, Endowment for Middle East Truth Joshua Katzen, Publisher, JNS.Org Rabbi Yitzchok Tendler, Director, Young Jewish Conservatives & Synagogue Executive Director Atlanta, GA Howard Brown, Executive Director, Rhode Island Coalition for Israel Rabbi Scott Bolton, Congregation Or Zarua, New York

*Affiliations are for identification purposes only. There are no entity signatories.

Mikki Futernick (Miami, Florida and Vail, Colorado), Paul M. Kaplan, Esq., Nachman Kanovsky, Mila Greenberg Raclaw, David Jacobs, Shifra Paikin, Joel Friedman (Florida), Toby Parker, Peter J. Halasz, Esq., Bernie Shuster, Sarah B. Biser, Esq., Dr.s Robert and Nilza Karl, Steve Weisblum, H.C. Lauer, Debbie Grunberger, Daniel Loewe (Berlin, Germany), Marvin Cohen (FL), Howard Berglas (Toronto, Canada), Alan Fant (Florida), Judy Davidovics, Rachel and Armand Perez, Pablo and Eleanor Nankin, Lance Silver (New Jersey), Paul Kruss (Florida)

Incomplete list, others added after signatures and affiliations confirmed