“If you will follow My decrees and keep My commandments, and you shall perform them. And I will give your rains in their time, and the land will yield its produce, and the tree of the field will give its fruit. … and you shall eat your bread to satiety, and you shall dwell securely in your land. And I will give peace in the land, and you will lie down, and there will be no one to frighten [you].

Yesterday, thank God, I arrived in Israel. I recognize that with each visit, my emuná, my faith in HaShem, grows and strengthens. Not only because here I feel that Tefilot (prayers) reach directly to heaven but because I see our beloved Israel renewed, increasingly prosperous, and more beautiful. Exactly as anticipated by the Torah and our prophets. Of course, to appreciate the miracles of this country, they must be put into context.

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Israel is located in the world’s most unstable and complex geopolitical context. Surrounded by countries with which it is at war, such as Lebanon and Syria, or with those with whom it maintains a tense relationship of diplomatic peace but cultural (and religious) hostility, such as Egypt and Jordan. In addition, it faces constant explicit threats from Iran, the contemporary version of Amalek, the enemy who hates Israel without any territorial conflicts in the middle (Israel and Iran do not share any border). Iran threatens to attack Israel and “wipe it off the map,” for which it is developing a special nuclear program. Israel is the only country in the world under this explicit threat.

SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY

But that’s not all: within its borders, Israel faces a Palestinian population that is largely hostile and refuses to renounce terrorism. A population that, with the consent of the entire world, has not been educated to seek and negotiate peace but to hate Israel. They have absorbed the ideal of jihadist martyrdom in their homes and schools: “Sacrifice your life to kill a Jew: man, woman, child, or baby!”. Now, under these circumstances – with so many military threats, hostilities, and terrorism – any other country in the world would be in a state of permanent panic and completely paralyzed. Its economy would be in ruins. Its government would be focused on surviving. And the population would be afraid to go out on the street. This would be the norm, the expected, the statistical, in a country with these problems. But the Jewish people have always known how to be the exception to statistics. Israel, inexplicably in non-supernatural terms, defies all expectations.

Let’s look at some examples:

GROSS PRODUCT

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita indicates a country’s economic prosperity. Israel has shown steady growth since 2018. From $42,407 per year in 2018, it has increased to $52,171 in 2021, and the International Monetary Fund’s projection predicts that by 2023 the GDP per capita of Israel will reach $58,270. This would place Israel as the 13th most prosperous country in the world, far above Japan, Italy, Spain, and Germany.

ISRAEL’S ENERGY

In recent years, Israel’s progress is reflected in its energy industry. For decades, Israel was considered a country without natural resources. I remember a joke from many years ago that said that Moses had gotten the destination wrong, and that he should have gone to an oil-rich country like Saudi Arabia. However, in recent years, Israel is becoming a major country with gigantic offshore natural gas reserves.  As Israel Katz, Israel’s Minister of Energy, said in June 2023, “Natural gas reserves have already changed the face of the local energy economy and turned the Israeli state into a global power in this field.”  See also this: https://www.jns.org/israel-news/natural-gas/23/6/4/292488/

OPEC AND THE JEWS

Do you remember OPEC and the pressures from oil-exporting countries on the US and Europe to boycott Israel? Well, listen to this news that you probably don’t know yet: apart from having found gigantic reserves of natural gas, Israel has discovered oil deposits on its Mediterranean coast. In February 2023, the company “Energean” recently produced the first crude oil extraction from Israel, a historical milestone for the country. The extraction of crude oil from the Karish offshore field represents the first time in Israeli oil production that Israel now exports to international markets, as Energean revealed on Tuesday, February 14, 2023, that Israel has joined the club of oil exporters. Who would have thought?   See this article https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/021423-israel-makes-first-ever-crude-oil-exports-as-karish-gas-giant-ramps-up

ISRAEL LEARNED TO DEFEND ITSELF

Israel’s military might is equally notable. As a result of so many wars and threats, and after experiencing international arms embargoes when it needed them most, Israel produces its own weapons, which are among the most sophisticated in the world. Israel specializes in everything that is missile defense, in air, land, and sea. Recently, Israel announced the final experimental stage of a new anti-missile defense system based on laser technology. This places Israel in a forefront position on how to face new supersonic missiles. Israel exports weapons to India and Azerbaijan, among others. And that’s not all. This is what journalist Herb Keinon wrote on June 16, 2023: “Israel sells its missile defense system to Germany…last week, Berlin preliminarily approved the purchase of the Arrow-3 missile defense system from Jerusalem for $4.3 billion. Such news would have been completely inconceivable 80 years ago…not long ago, the only thing Israel had to offer the world was Jaffa oranges, a revolutionary hair removal device called Epilady, and the Uzi machine gun. But today it provides missiles that shoot down other missiles in the stratosphere and software that drives industries, and exports natural gas and oil to European countries seeking to reduce their dependence on Russian oil.”  See this:  https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-746500

DEMOGRAPHIC GROWTH

Israel’s Jewish demography is becoming increasingly robust. In 2023, Israel is the Western democracy with the highest birth rate. With 3.13 births per woman, the Jewish birth rate in Israel surpasses the rate of 2.85 of the Arab population. Soon, very soon, the majority of the Jewish people will be here in Israel. This demographic dynamism fuels the economy, strengthens national security, and promotes a less timid foreign policy.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

There is something else. A statistical data point that, unlike the aforementioned, can be seen on the street and perhaps represents the most miraculous statistic of all. Let me tell you. In 2012, the UN created a new international index that measures countries according to the degree of “happiness” of their population. With all the external and internal conflicts — Iran, Palestinian terrorism, Hamas, etc.— and due to the constant tension that this would normally produce, the average Israeli citizen should be the most worried, depressed, terrified, and unhappy person on the planet. However, Israel is among the happiest countries in the world! Israel competes in the same zone as the most “boring” countries: stable and with a total absence of war, like Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. In fact, in 2023, Israel is ranked incredibly as the fourth country with the happiest population in the world. Above Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Can anyone explain this anomaly in rational or statistical terms? I don’t think so.

God promised our patriarchs that in the future, their descendants would inherit the land of Israel and enjoy all His blessings: fertility, prosperity, and peace. There is a Tefilá (prayer) that we say every night, “UFROS ALENU SUKAT SHELOMEKHA,” we ask the Boré Olam (Creator of the Universe) to extend over us his “protective cover” of peace, which I would like to interpret as mental tranquility, which is exactly the opposite of the fear that terrorism naturally causes. This “psychological peace” is a Divine blessing.

For all this, if anyone needed proof of the existence of God — the God who protected and blessed with prosperity and fertility Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — let him or her come to this land and open his eyes to the miraculous Biblical reality that is lived here: Israel, in the midst of adversity, not only survives but also grows and thrives.

PS: I almost forgot… Israel also stands out in the “most important arena of international sports”: soccer :),  achieving the honorable third place in the Under-20 World Cup of 2023!

  הִנֵּה אֲנִי פֹתֵחַ אֶת-קִבְרוֹתֵיכֶם וְהַעֲלֵיתִי אֶתְכֶם מִקִּבְרוֹתֵיכֶם עַמִּי; וְהֵבֵאתִי אֶתְכֶם, אֶל-אַדְמַת יִשְׂרָאֵל

יחזקאל ל”ז

This is a very symbolic week, a week that represents the transition between two completely opposite historical milestones that affected the Jewish people more than any other historical event. On the one hand, this past Tuesday we cried and mourned on Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day. On the other hand, this coming Tuesday night, we will celebrate Yom ha’Atzmaut, the day of Independence of the State of Israel. Jews have suffered countless persecutions, massacres, and pogroms everywhere and at all times. However, we have never suffered as in the Shoah. Both in absolute and relative terms, there has never been such a devastating massacre as the Shoah. The Jewish people were never so close to being exterminated. At one point in 1944 or 1945, when the Nazis murdered half a million Hungarian Jews in just six months, when no one dared to oppose the Third Reich, or when Rommel was preparing the gas chambers in Tunisia to transport and gas there, the Jews of North Africa, Palestine, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. At such times we lost all our hopes. We felt we were doomed to die or we were already dead. We were buried. It was the end.

But then the greatest miracle, promised so long ago by our prophets, happened. In a span of just three years, which in the context of the history of our people is less than the blink of an eye, the Kibbuts Galuyot, the return to our land, began. HaShem took us out of our graves, lifted us, and brought us back to Israel. And from the ashes, we, the Jewish people, began to revive. More than 2500 years ago, Ezekiel (Yehezqel) had a very special prophetic vision (nebua). In this vision (Chapter 37), HaShem transported him to a valley. In that valley, there were bones. Many bones. Human bones. Probably millions of bones. Dry bones. There is nothing more dead than a dry bone. Ezekiel saw it and said nothing. And then HaShem told Ezekiel: “Son of man: Do you believe that these bones will ever come alive? And Ezekiel, in a combination of humility and surprise, replied: “HaShem, God, You would know that.”

And then, there was a deafening noise. The bones began to move, came together and formed skeletons. Veins and nerves covered the skeletons and, finally, flesh and skin. Now, they were no longer bones but bodies; dead human bodies, corpses. Then, HaShem said to Ezekiel, “Prophesy to these bodies to insufflate into them a breath of life, and let the spirit of life enter into these bodies and let them live again.” And so it was. A breath of life entered the bodies, and they stood up. It was a great army, very large. HaShem told the prophet Ezekiel, “Son of man, these bones are the house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones dried up, we lost our hope, we have been sentenced to disappear.’ So, I prophesy and say to them [Israel]: Thus said HaShem, God: behold, I will open your graves, and I will raise up from your graves, and I will bring you to the land of Israel. And it will be known that I am HaShem when I open your graves and bring you from them, My people. I will grant you a spirit of life, and you will live again. And I will lead you into your land. And you will know that I am HaShem. I have promised, and I delivered.”

It is impossible not to connect this prophecy with 1945 and 1948. In 1945, we were doomed to disappear. We were dry bones or, perhaps worse: ashes. And then, when so many Goyim thought that we had disappeared, that we would never again become a people, that all those promising prophecies would never be fulfilled, the greatest miracle occurred, just like Ezekiel saw in the valley of the dry bones. HaShem opened our graves, lifted us, and brought us back to Israel. HaShem promised, and He delivered.

כֹּה אָמַר ה’ צְבָאוֹת: עֹד יֵשְׁבוּ זְקֵנִים וּזְקֵנוֹת בִּרְחֹבוֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָם, וְאִישׁ מִשְׁעַנְתּוֹ בְּיָדוֹ מֵרֹב יָמִים. וּרְחֹבוֹת הָעִיר יִמָּלְאוּ יְלָדִים וִילָדוֹת מְשַׂחֲקִים בִּרְחֹבֹתֶיהָ

זכריה ח’ 5-4

There is a scripture carved in stone. It’s a quote from the prophet Zekhariah, 8:4-5. Zekhariah was a child when the Jews lived in the Babylonian exile 2500 years ago. Without their own land and without the Bet HaMiqdash, the future of the Jewish people looked very grim. They were hopeless. In normal circumstances, Jews would have naturally integrated (assimilated) into the Babylonian population and disappeared. But a miracle happened. Cyrus, the Persian emperor, was moved by HaShem (as he explicitly declared) and encouraged the Jews to come back to Israel and rebuild Jerusalem. Although the majority of the Jews chose to remain in Babel (the first but not last “voluntary exile”), thousands came back.

Zekhariah was among them. They found a completely destroyed city. Everything was ruins, ashes, and desolation. There was not even a wall to protect the city, which made living in the city a mission impossible (imagine living in a house without one of its outside walls).

But from the midst of this desolation, Zekhariah had a prophetic vision, a very unlikely scenario to happen, given the terrible conditions of Yerushalayim in his days.

This prophecy, engraved on that stone, is in Chapter 8, verses 4-5:

כֹּה אָמַר ה’ צְבָאוֹת: עֹד יֵשְׁבוּ זְקֵנִים וּזְקֵנוֹת בִּרְחֹבוֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָם, וְאִישׁ מִשְׁעַנְתּוֹ בְּיָדוֹ מֵרֹב יָמִים. וּרְחֹבוֹת הָעִיר יִמָּלְאוּ יְלָדִים וִילָדוֹת מְשַׂחֲקִים בִּרְחֹבֹתֶיהָ (זכריה ח’ 5-4)

“And now, HaShem says: I will return to Mount Zion, and I will dwell in Yerushalayim…. And once again, old men and women will walk Jerusalem’s streets with their canes and will sit together in the city squares. And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in it.”

Let us now see the whole picture: you are in Bate Mahase, reading this extraordinary verse engraved on the stone in front of you. On any given day, elders sit on a bench and children play in the street. Then you realize that you have the incredible merit of being a living witness to the fulfillment of Zekhariah’s prophetic words. You also understand that you are not just a witness of Zekhariah’s prophecy but rather the embodiment of that prophecy. You get the feeling that 2500 years ago, in his incredible vision, Zekhariah saw you.

SMOKE SCREEN?

Our beloved State of Israel is currently experiencing a deep crisis: weekly demonstrations against the government, media hysteria, and even threats of military desertion and civil war. This time, it is not an armed conflict with the enemy – though those never cease – but rather a civil protest from the opposition. The political mobilization has declared its goal to prevent “the end of democracy” in Israel. What is happening in Israel that poses such a danger to its democracy? The official story from the opposition is that the new Knesset, or Israeli Parliament, which took office a couple of months ago, is proposing a judicial reform that “will bring irreparable negative consequences to Israel in the short and long term.” Initially, I was concerned about these arguments, but then I applied some basic principles of Talmudic logic, which trained me to differentiate between empty slogans and solid facts. I realized that I have nothing to worry about regarding the future of democracy in Israel. So, what is this reform proposing? Listening to the opposition, one would think that there will be no more elections in Israel, women would not be able to vote, or every man will be forced to wear a Kippa. Let’s start by understanding a little better what the proposed judicial reform is all about. There are four points in the proposal, with the first and most fundamental being that future new judges of the Supreme Court of Justice of Israel shall not be elected through the vote or veto of the judges currently serving in the court. Instead, the new judges shall be elected by the representatives of the people, as happens in all democracies around the world. While there are other details, this is the most relevant issue. I know this because it is the first point the government is addressing, and it is the only point of the reform that the Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin, is unwilling to negotiate.

WHAT IS THIS REFORM GOING TO MODIFY?

So far, the system for electing new judges in Israel is “unique” in the democratic world, and not in a positive way. In Israel, sitting judges have the veto to disqualify new candidates. Let’s compare it with the United States, for example. When a vacancy in the Supreme Court opens up, new justices are nominated by the President, vetted, and after many investigations, inquiries, and public hearings, are approved by the Senate with a majority of at least 51 to 49. SITTING JUDGES DO NOT HAVE ANY SAY, VOTE, VOICE, OR VETO IN THIS PROCESS. On the contrary, they stay completely out of the picture to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest and to allow the process to be genuinely democratic and transparent. With some minor variables, this is the case in almost all democracies worldwide. In Israel, unbelievably, the judges of the Court (in Hebrew BAGATZ) choose the new judges. The candidates are not even subjected to a public hearing by the Knesset! Without these hearings, nepotism, conflict of interest, favoritism, lack of diversity, discrimination, or overrepresentation may remain undetected under the radar. This definitely non-democratic system has allowed the Supreme Court to multiply and perpetuate itself ideologically by choosing new judges from the same ethnicity, the same political views (socialism), and the same religious ideology (secular) as their predecessors. This outrageous fact was denounced a few days ago by the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, who said that the Supreme Court of Israel “does not have significant Sephardic representation.” I add to that: neither religious nor conservative representation, although these sectors constitute more than 60% of Israel’s Jewish population today! It is clear then that the new proposal for the election of judges is anything but anti-democratic. But why, then, so much scandal? Who can be bothered by the fact that the Knesset would choose the future judges as the rest of the world does? Especially considering that the maximum term of a Knesset is four years (although in practice, it is much less; from 2019 to 2023, for example, the Knesset changed five times!). In four years, three or four judges may retire or resign and need a replacement. This implies that if this Knesset, which is leaning to the right, chooses judges of a similar ideology, the next Knesset, if it leans to the left, will be able to choose its left-leaning judges. And so, the balance is always restored. Take, for example, the case of the US Supreme Court. Thanks to its normal democratic system of electing new judges, a balance in terms of ideological representation will be achieved in the long term. Even if, once in a while, the US court might be 6 to 3, in the long term, the ratio between liberal and conservative judges will normally be 4 to 5 or 5 to 4. This is the new system that the new Knesset is proposing to elect new judges: a transparent and absolutely democratic one, while the present system is definitely not! Why so much noise, then? I believe this relates to the problems of the Israeli left-leaning parties.

IN THE BEGINNING

The modern State of Israel was founded in 1948 by European Zionist Jews who came from a socialist and secular culture. For example, David Ben Gurion and the vast majority of those who signed the Declaration of Independence of Medinat Israel belonged to socialist parties such as Mapai and Mapam, or Maki. These parties founded left-wing institutions such as the Kibbutzim, a social experiment unique in the world that put into practice the communist socio-cultural-economic utopia in its purest form. According to Professor Mordechai Kedar (see see this video for more detailed information), the socialist ideology that prevailed in Israel during those years was the reason why the Soviet Union was the first country in the world to vote in favor of the creation of the new Jewish State. The reason why Czechoslovakia, then a Soviet satellite, was the only country that supported Israel with planes and weapons in its independence war was that a socialist state was supporting another socialist state. Let there be no misunderstanding! The generation of Ben Gurion produced heroes who, although they did not have formal Jewish education, were responsible for founding the wonderful Jewish state that we enjoy today. They were the ones who literally gave their lives for Medinat Israel! We owe them a lot! And I believe that despite his secular ideology, David Ben Gurion did not ignore the religious magnitude of his political achievements. He said, “In Israel, whoever does not believe in miracles is not realistic.” And I think that part of that miracle is that the modern state of the people of the Book , the homeland of the people chosen by God, was founded by Jews who “declared” themselves atheists (I definitely believe that they were not!).

THE DISAPPOINTING PEACE PROCESS

Let’s now return to our topic. Over time, many changes took place in Israel that implied a transformation of the left and a sustained loss of its electoral strength. On the one hand, the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism meant that the Jewish state grew economically through booming capitalism. Mapai’s socialist platform was transformed, and the national Zionist values that characterized Ben Gurion were replaced by less Jewish and more universal ideas. On the other hand, there was the well-intentioned willingness to dialogue with the Palestinians and concede territories in exchange for peace. However, the average Israeli citizen became tired of seeing that concessions only brought more attacks and wars. Then came the Oslo fiasco and the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, which did not bring peace to Israel but, on the contrary, led to suicide attacks, terrorism, intifadas, underground tunnels, missiles, etc. This is when many left-leaning pacifist Israelis, such as Gadi Taub or Professor Mordechai Kedar, who believed in a sincere peace dialogue with the Palestinians, woke up from their illusion and realized that they were naive. They understood that on the Palestinian side, there is no partner for peace and that the Palestinians do not want to coexist with Israel but to replace Israel. It was a tough blow for the left, as more and more Israelis leaned to the right or at least to the center. Extreme left-wing parties, such as Shinui, Chadash, and what is now Meretz, became less representative of Israeli society.

RETAINING BUREAUCRATIC POWER

Although the left has been in decline in terms of its electoral power, it has strategically consolidated itself within the “deep state” – powerful institutions that do not depend on the votes of the Knesset. The Israeli left now dominates universities, the air force, elite army groups like the 8200 intelligence unit, the media, the national prosecutor’s office, and the secret services, among others. In this way, the socialist elite has retained much of the power it lost at the polls. The most coveted prize, however, is the Supreme Court. In 1995, Aharon Barak, the President of the Supreme Court, a man who identifies with the left and has recently confessed his complete ignorance of basic Judaism, obtained the authority to veto any law issued by the legislative body, the Keneset, in a questionable manner (see this video). Barak proclaimed his Court of Justice as the supreme authority virtually “above the Keneset”. It should be clarified that Israel does not have a constitution; it is a parliamentary democracy, like England. Therefore, when the Supreme Court rejects a Kenset legislation  it is not because that law is against the constitution, as might happen in the US, for example. In Israel, the Supreme Court can veto a law even if it considers it “unreasonable,” giving the Court an authority higher than the Parliament and seriously disabling the Keneset’s ability to legislate. This does not exist in any democracy, whether constitutional or parliamentary). To ensure that the Court will not change its ideology in the future and will remain faithful to the left-wing philosophy, an election system was established in which current judges can veto new judges. In other words, Barak produced a “judicial coup or dictatorship” with the power to annul laws legislated by any Keneset, especially right-leaning, and maintained its hegemony, cloning itself regardless of the results of democratic elections. Today, according to Israeli journalist Jacob Vardugo, 12 o 13 of the 15 current judges are left-leaning judges! Can you imagine the US Supreme Court with 8 out of 9 conservative or liberal judges with a say and a veto in the election of new judges?

CHANGES
And this “inbalance of power” is exactly what the judicial reform promoted by Justice Minister Yariv Levin wants to modify. They desire a Supreme Court that reflects the serving Knesset, whether right or left. If the demand is for “democracy,” then let the left win the next elections and choose their judges, as it happens in all countries worldwide! Moreover, if the opposition wins the next election, they can “reverse” all the other points of the judicial reform. These are the rules of any healthy democracy. However, the Israeli left is losing more and more supporters, and in the last elections in November 2022, the left-leaning party Meretz did not receive enough votes. For the first time in history, it was left out of the Knesset! This is why the Israeli left is in “panic” mode, organizing demonstrations to survive the “mortal”- but democratic- blow it received . If this analysis is correct, then the opposition to the judicial reform proposed by the new government is not the reason for this crisis, but a new excuse used by the opposition’s leaders who are desperately trying to regain relevance. They are threatening a civil war, withdrawing money from Israel, and trying to destabilize or damage the current government. In this political war, the opposition has many allies in all media outlets, such as channels 11, 12, and 13 (except for channel 14), newspapers such as Haaretz, retired army generals formed with a socialist ideology, former Prime Ministers who have lost relevance, political rivals of Netanyahu, and even right-wing political adversaries. However, the opposition only has 47 seats (without counting the Arab parties) against the government’s 64, which means that the judicial reform will pass through a democratic vote.

FEAR OF DEMOCRACY OR FEAR OF DEMOGRAPHY?

As long as it is done within the law, every attempt to survive politically is valid. But it hurts me that the left is cynically spreading fake news and arguing that all these demonstrations are being held to prevent the “end of democracy”, when in reality, the goal is to prevent the “end of the left’s monopoly” in a Supreme Court that is anything but democratic. The left knows that if the future Supreme Court judges are democratically elected by the Knesset, they will lose representation in the long run. Why? On the one hand, as we have explained, the traditional left lost countless supporters who were disappointed by the insistence on negotiating peace with those who only seek our extermination. But there is something else: the left fears that they are irretrievably losing their electorate due to Israel’s demographic projection. In 1999, the experienced religious and political leader Menachem Porush said the following to his left-leaning political opponents: “Instead of protesting, secular Israelis should have more children… we… every time we open a Talmud Torah or a traditionalist or religious school, they immediately fill up! While secular schools are increasingly empty! Why don’t you help your own schools and institutions grow? Today, left-leaning Israelis have negative birth rates… the biggest tragedy you have created is this low birth rate… have more children and I assure you that we will get along just fine together…”. In the long run, this demographic projection that includes traditionalist and right-wing Israelis will render the left irrelevant. Once we understand this, we will realize that the left’s demonstrations and threats of civil war are not because they fear losing democracy, but because of the panic over the new demographic reality, which was already felt in the last elections. THIS IS THE REAL PROBLEM OF THE OPPOSITION.

In conclusion, no one wants a civil war. The new government does not want to impose religious lifestyles by force or limit individual freedoms. The goal of this new government and the judicial reform is precisely to respect the will of the people expressed through democratic elections, in the present and in the future. The judicial reform is a historic step towards a truly democratic Israel, proudly reclaiming its national and Jewish identity. Towards that end, with God’s help, the State of Israel is heading.

As a general rule, I tend to steer clear of political issues, but today I’m making an exception. The reason is simple: what’s happening in Israel right now has historical significance that could positively impact the strengthening of the Jewish and democratic character of the State of Israel. And, as a Jew, I feel compelled to weigh in.

The new government of Israel recently announced plans to undertake a comprehensive reform of the country’s judicial system in the coming months, with a particular focus on the Supreme Court of Justice, known as  BAGATZ ( בית דין גבוה לצדק). Led by Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, the reform aims to address a number of conflicting points in the current system. Today I want to focus on one in particular.

Currently, Israel is the only democratic country in the world where judges are not confirmed by the people or their representatives in Congress. In the United States, for example, judges are confirmed by the Senate, and in most European countries, they are either confirmed by political representatives or elected directly by the people. Only in Israel do Supreme Court judges participate in the election of other Supreme Court judges and have the power to veto candidates.

The system works like this: there’s a special commission to elect judges  (הוועדה למינוי שופטים)   that includes three judges from the Supreme Court, two representatives from the Keneset (Israel’s parliament), two representatives from the Ministry of Justice, and two representatives from the country’s Lawyers Association. For a new judge to be confirmed, he or she must receive the votes of seven out of the nine commission members. The problem is that the three representatives of the Supreme Court, all appointed by the President of the Court, always vote as a bloc. This has led to a Supreme Court that perpetuates itself in power by “cloning” itself every time a new judge is elected.

This system has caused a number of problems, one of the most severe being nepotism. Nepotism in the Israeli judicial system is endemic and unlike anything seen in any other country in the world. Why? Because the Supreme Court doesn’t even try to hide it, it’s an open and verifiable operation. The former President of the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice, Aharon Barak, who was responsible for establishing this disturbing system in 1992, has explicitly declared: “The Supreme Court of Justice of Israel is a family, someone who does not belong to that family cannot be allowed to enter it” (see minute 1.10 of the video below). And to make clear that Barak was not “metaphorically” speaking about a family, one can verify the jobs held in the judiciary by Barak’s friends, children, and especially his wife, as you can see in the video below. To identify and begin to understand the endemic nepotism of the judicial system with names and last names, please watch this video made by “The Movement For Governability And Democracy” (https://meshilut.org/en/) a non-profit organization that believes that nepotism and democracy should not go hand in hand.

The State of Israel is a melting pot of Jewish ethnic diversity, religious observance, and ideologies, making it one of the most diverse countries in the world. Sephardic, Ashkenazi; left, right, center; secular, religious, traditionalists, etc. However, this diversity is not reflected in the composition of the country’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Justice. With 15 judges, the court maintains diversity in only one aspect, gender. In every other aspect, especially in terms of ethnicity and religion, the court is anything but diverse. There is a lack of representation from religious or right-wing or Sephardic population segments, despite these groups being the ethnic, religious, and ideological profile of most Israeli citizens, as was demonstrated in the last election this past November. The court is mainly composed of secular and progressive individuals, mostly Ashkenazi Jews, making it a virtual extension of the left-wing political party MERETZ, which has recently lost its representation in the Keneset and represents a tiny percentage of Israel’s population.

The proposed judicial reform aims to change this elitist system by removing the power of the Supreme Court judges to veto the appointment of new judges and giving the power to the people’s representatives in the Keneset. This reform is not an attack on democracy, as some media outlets may suggest, but rather an effort to restore democracy in Israel by making the court more diverse and representative of all sectors of society. This can only happen if judges are democratically elected, as is the case in every civilized democracy in the world.

Another crucial aspect of the proposed judicial reform in Israel is the need to address the overreach and ideological activism of the Supreme Court of Justice. One particularly concerning issue is the concept of “ilat hasbirut” or “the monopoly of commonsense” in my free translation. This non-precedent clause allows the court to make decisions based on their own interpretation of common sense rather than following established legal precedents. This undermines the separation of powers and can lead to the Court making decisions based on their own personal beliefs and ideologies rather than on the letter of the law. This is a crucial and complex issue that needs to be addressed, and I will delve deeper into it in a future article.

The Supreme Court’s nepotism has led to a lack of diversity in the court. The judges are mostly from the same socio-economic background, with similar ideological leanings, and often have personal connections to one another. This lack of diversity has led to a lack of checks and balances, allowing the court to become a tool for advancing a specific agenda rather than serving as an impartial arbiter of justice.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israels-judicial-reform-will-strengthen-its-democracy-opinion/ar-AA167Wch

It is disheartening to see the lack of serious and in-depth coverage of the proposed judicial reform in Israel, particularly in English. To truly understand the significance of this reform and why it is necessary for a democratic Israel to avoid a judicial dictatorship, I highly recommend that Hebrew speakers take the time to watch this video: https://youtu.be/aMStvnDwbKc. It provides a comprehensive overview of the problem and solution. For those who may not have the time or patience to watch the full video, I recommend this shorter presentation by Professor Talia Einhorn, an expert in comparative international law, which illustrates the excess power attributed to the Supreme Court: https://youtu.be/IkhdmZOdmcQ. Additionally, for those who read Hebrew, I recommend these articles for a more detailed understanding of the issue. One explains how the judicial veto works: https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001435502, and the other describes the problem of lack of diversity in the Supreme Court: https://www.inn.co.il/news/435824. It is crucial that we educate ourselves on the proposed reform and its implications for the democratic and representative nature of Israel’s judiciary.

(This article is the continuation of the article found at this link).

ורדפו מכם חמשה מאה ומאה מכם רבבה ירדפו ונפלו אויביכם לפניכם לחרב

THE WORST FOUR WEEKS IN THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL

Israel’s War of Independence was the most critical battle for the survival of the Jewish State. It began on the evening of May 15th, 1948, when the British army withdrew from their region. Throughout the first few weeks of the war, the United Arab armies were defeating the newborn State of Israel, despite a heroic resistance. But Israel was not able to stop the advance of five strong armies with planes, ammunition, and counting with the implicit support of the rest of the world. Before beginning their attack, the Arabs, confident in their impending victory had said that “what Hitler did was nothing compared to what they would do with the Jews living in Israel.” It was a horrible dejavu of the Shoa, to see that the world remained silent. But HaShem was with us. And the unimaginable occurred. Israel not only survived the invasion of five Arab armies but against all odds, won the war in a way no one could have anticipated.

THE MIRACULOUS CEASE-FIRE

According to Dr. Hagai Ben Artzi- professor of history at Bar Ilan University (and brother-in-law of former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu) the greatest miracle of this war was that the Arab armies accepted a ceasefire. The proposal came from the Swedish  Folke Bernadotte, who had been designated as a mediator between the Arabs and Israelis by the United Nations. The ceasefire proposed to stop all military activity for four weeks and stated that the armies would remain in control of the positions they had conquered. Israel, which conquered nothing and was cornered everywhere, immediately accepted the proposal. The unexplainable, however, is that the Arab armies also accepted the proposal. I quote Ben Artzi from his (Hebrew) book- Megillat Hatequma VeHaAtzmaut: “…but why did the Arabs accept the ceasefire …? …they had almost reached all of their military objectives: Jerusalem was surrounded and besieged; Tel Aviv, a very short distance [from falling]; southern Israel [the Negeb] disconnected from the rest of the country, and the Galil, the North, was already conquered. A little more effort on the part of the Arabs and they were already in the heart of Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Petah Tikva, Netania, Hadera, and Afula. … ” Ben Artzi does not hide his conviction that this ceasefire was indeed a miracle of Biblical proportions. The enemies of Israel retreated as if possessed by an imaginary panic.

A BIBLICAL FEAR

Among other examples of this sort of Providential intervention, Ben Artzi mentions what happened on May 30th, 1948. Israel went to war without a single military plane. While the Arabs had over 75 active warplanes. The only country which dared to break the embargo and sold weapons to Israel was Czechoslovakia. By the end of May, four unarmed German “Messerschmidt” military planes arrived in Israel inside a transport plane. The planes were quickly assembled and on May 30th, and without even a test run, were sent on their first operation: trying to stop the Egyptian forces that were only 30 Kilometers away from Tel Aviv. These new Israeli planes took the Egyptians by surprise but did not cause severe damage, because the weapons did not function very well. Nevertheless, the Egyptian commander sent an urgent message to his headquarters saying that they could go no further because they were heavily bombarded “by a force far superior to them”. This “military assessment” was based more on imagination than reality. Ben Artzi also cites the reports of an Egyptian officer who fought in that battle and was taken prisoner by the Israelis in the 1956 war. When asked why the Egyptians did not continue their advancement towards Tel Aviv in ’48, when they had the whole area open to them, he said, “In the two Israeli attacks … we saw something that shook us: even after being hit by direct fire and suffering large losses, the Israeli soldiers continued to advance as if they were “crazy” (mej’nunin). And we said to ourselves: it is impossible to defeat these madmen. Better [accept the ceasefire and] settle for what we have conquered. ”

ALL ROADS LEAD TO JERUSALEM

Another providential event that occurred was that a young soldier, Moshe Eshed, discovered, “by coincidence” an alternative path to Jerusalem through the mountains, which was named “Derekh Burma.”  Through this path, the Israeli fighters were able to send food, medicine, weapons, and reinforcements to the city. There were about 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem at the time, especially concentrated in the Western area, the “Jewish Jerusalem.” They were completely isolated and trapped by the Jordanians, who had blocked all entrances to Jerusalem to avoid any supplies sent in.  If this mysterious path- which shockingly neither the Arabs nor the United Nations discovered for six months- had not been found, Jerusalem would’ve collapsed and the war would have had a very different ending. 

WHEN WHAT DOES NOT HAPPEN IS A GOOD THING

Despite all efforts, the Old City of Jerusalem (where the Kotel and the Temple mountain are) could not be conquered. By the end of the 1948 war, the Old City still remained in the power of the Jordanians. Until the Six Days War in 1967. Even in this failure, we can see the Divine Hand because if Israel had conquered Jerusalem in 1948, the United Nations would have demanded the internationalization of Jerusalem, a holy city “for the three Biblical religions”. International pressure would have been unsustainable and Israel, which was not strong at that time, would have surely relented. Jerusalem, with international status, would have been impossible to recover. And the long-term consequences for Israel would have been terrible. In the end, the Old City was not conquered by the Jews in 1948 and came under Jordan’s sovereignty. And as expected, no one imposed an “International status” on the city, and there were no complaints to the Jordanians for not allowing the Jews to visit the Western Wall.

Therefore, when in 1967 Israel conquered the Old City, the U.N. could no longer demand from Israel what they did not demand from Jordan for 19 years…

Zionism= The return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel to found there a Jewish State.

While the term “Zionism” was coined by Nathan Birnbaum in 1890, Rabbi Yehuda Bibas (1776-1852) should be credited with the idea of ​​modern Zionism. Rabbi Bibas was born in Gibraltar (an English colony). From his mother’s side, he was the grandson of the famous Moroccan rabbi Rabbenu Hayim ben Attar, the Or-haHayim-haQadosh (1696-1743). His father belonged to the prestigious Bibas family of Rabbanim, Dayanim, and Shochatim in Tetuan, Spanish Morocco. He was for many years the rabbi of the prominent and affluent Jewish community of Corfu, a beautiful island that today belongs to Greece.

Rabbi Bibas saw the opportunity for the Jewish people to have their own State because many countries in those years (1820-1835) revolted against the ruling empires and thus gained their independence. Living in Corfu allowed the Rabbi the privileged perspective of being a direct witness to the revolution of the Greeks against the Ottoman Empire and the victory that led to the creation of the independent Greek State. Israel, then called “Palestine”, was also under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. in 1835, Rabbi Bibas believed that, like the Greeks, Jews could gain their own independence, as the Ottoman Empire was increasingly weak politically and militarily. In his opinion:  “The Jews must conquer the land of Israel militarily from the Turks, just as the Greeks conquered their own land from the Turks.” Rabbi Bibas traveled through Europe and North Africa, visiting Turkey, the Balkans, Vienna, London, Germany, Hungary and Prague, and many more Jewish communities. The main message he preached to all the Jews of the world was “TESHUBA,” a call to return as a Nation to the land of Israel and founding a Jewish State.

Rabbi Bibas gave a broader meaning to the term Teshuba. Literally, “Teshuba” means “return.” But beyond the conventional meaning of the return of the Jewish individual to God, in the Tora, we find the idea of ​​”Teshuba / return” primarily as the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. In the book of Debarim, chapter 30, 1-11, “Teshuba” is mentioned eight times, first, as “collective repentance,” followed by a national “reconciliation” with HaShem. Then Teshuba defines the way that HaShem will “return” the Jewish people to their land. Just as the exile in the previous chapter (Debarim 29) resulted from the Jews abandoning HaShem, the return to the land of Israel is presented as the result of the reconciliation between Am Israel and HaShem, our God. Rabbi Bibas explained that by dwelling in the Diaspora: “We are turning our backs on HaShem (the opposite of “teshuba”, i.e., “facing” HaShem. YB), as our rabbis explained: A Jew living outside Israel is like a Jew without God. And why are we living in exile? To seek our sustenance? Did not the Tora say that the land of Israel is a land that HaShem constantly monitors, where bread will not be eaten with poverty? Is it not a land that will not lack anything? Day after day, when eating our bread, we thank HaShem for the land of abundance, Israel, that He has granted us …”

Rabbi Yehuda Alqalay (1798-1878) brought the ideas of Rabbi Yehuda Bibas to writing. Unlike Rabbi Bibas, who did not get to publish his ideas (or his books did not reach us) Rabbi Alqalay was a prolific writer. Like Rabbi Bibas, Rabbi Alkalay did not conceive the return of the people of Israel to the land of Israel just as a solution to the eternal problem of anti-semitism, but as the only way of fulfilling the Jewish aspiration for “normalization”: that is, the people Jewish, living in its land, Israel, ruled by its law, the Tora of Israel. Both rabbis,  Bibas and Alqalay, understood that the people of Israel did not need to wait passively for the arrival of the Mashiach to materialize this aspiration. Rather, Jews should actively seek the re-establishment of an independent Jewish State in the land of our ancestors as a way of advancing and facilitating the arrival of the Mashiach.

Inspired by Rabbi Bibas, Rabbi Alqalay formulated his plan and ideas for restoring the Jews in Israel in his book “Goral laHaShem,” published in Vienna in 1857. In this book he designed a comprehensive plan with the religious foundations and the practical steps to bring to fruition a national “TESHUBA”: The return of the Jewish nation to the land of Israel. The book was published in three different editions and translated into many languages, including English.

I present HERE the book of Rabbi Yehuda Alqalay, where you can see once and again that the word that defines “Zionism” is TESHUBA.

It is fascinating to read the haskamot (letters of recommendation) that this book had from many prominent rabbis. In my opinion, the most interesting letter is that of Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885, originally written in Hebrew) the most famous philanthropist and leader of the Jewish people in the 19th Century.

If I worked for Associated Press, I would have written this article today:

”A young Frenchman, Damien T., just 28 years old, was brutally attacked by five security officers, then violently subdued by French police, handcuffed and humiliated in front of hundreds of impressionable witnesses. The 28-year-old freedom fighter was taken in a special military vehicle, against his will, and transferred to a maximum security prison, where he was forced to undress and wear a humiliating prison uniform. All his basic human rights were taken away from him. It is still early to know the destructive impact that all this abuse of power will have in the near future on Damien’s mental health. And the damaging psychological wounds that this violent arrest will bring to his parents, siblings and young nephews. This is a crime against humanity, for which the French government should be unanimously and unambiguously condemned”.

If my journalistic article ended here, it would be perfectly similar to the way that almost all the media reports to the world when Israel responds militarily to criminal attacks launched from Gaza. When it comes to Israel, journalists victimize the criminal and completely ignore the original crime that triggered the use of force. And if the Hamas crime should NOT be mentioned, why then would it be relevant to mention that Damien T. slapped the French President, Emmanuel Macron? Or why no one questions France’s justice that “disproportionately” sentence Damien T to 4 months in jail!   A simple slap from Macron to Damien should be enough to solve this.   That would be truly proportional….

When Hamas attacks Israel with missiles and rockets, with the explicit aim of killing as many Jews as possible, the leaders of the European Union do not even mention Hamas but are quick to condemn Israel for the “disproportionate use of force.” … Following this ridiculous reasoning, the next time Hamas “slaps” Israel, the Jewish state should respond in a more canonical and European way: turning the other cheek…. like President Macron did.