Reflections on Democracy
Reflections on Democracy
Prof. Paul Eidelberg
1. The Nazis came to power by a democratic election.
2. Hamas came to power by a democratic election.
3. Ariel Sharon came to power by a democratic election and adopted a
policy rejected by an overwhelming majority of the public.
4. Sharon founded a party, Kadima, which gained control of the government without having competed in any democratic election.
5. Although Kadima included several politicians under police nvestigation, as well as politicians who obviously joined that party or opportunistic reasons, polls projected that Kadima would win at least twice the number of Knesset seats of its nearest competitors—a commentary on the character of Israeli democracy.
6. The government is ever intoning the dictum that democracy equires the “rule of law.” Yet, for this same government, tens of thousands of illegally built Arab homes in Israel do not threaten the “rule of law,” while Jews protesting expulsion from their legally held homes in Hebron “threaten the very foundations of the state.”
7. In the name of democracy the government pursues a policy of zero-tolerance for Jewish patriots, while pursuing a policy self-restraint toward Arab terrorists.
8. Israel’s Supreme Court, a self-perpetuating oligarchy, renders ecisions in the name of democracy, which decisions violate the abiding beliefs of an overwhelming majority of Israel’s Jewish citizens.
9. Supreme Court president Aharon Barak insists that Judaism is consistent with democracy, yet the democratic principle of one adult/one vote heralds the demographic ascendancy of Israel’s Arab citizens, which would make a Jewish and democratic state impossible.
10. In the name of democratic freedom, the Barak Court quashed the indictment of Arab MK Azmi Bishara, who urged Israel’s Arab citizens to emulate Hiszbullah, hence to murder Jews.
11. In the name of democratic freedom, this same court refrains from upholding Basic Law: The Knesset, which prohibits any party that
rejects Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state.
12. Although Israel is not in truth a democracy, its political and judicial elites derive their legitimacy and respectability from Israel’s reputation as a democracy.
13. Israel’s reputation as a democracy induces the capitals of the democratic world to pressure Israel to make gratuitous concessions to
the most implacable enemies of democracy—Arab despots.
14. Despite the preceding, Jews in Israel, ignorant of how to design a modern Torah form of government, slavishly echo Churchill’s dogma that “democracy is not the best form of government, but all others are worse.”
Posted by Ted Belman at February 2, 2006 09:44 AM
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1.
freddie
said:
George Bushj the Second came to power by a questionable tactic and use of Surpreme Court and lost the popular elections and now has over 50% of the nation disliking his running of the country...so it goes. As for Hitler and fake democracy: one man, one vote, one time. However, having one lection does not a democracy make.
Posted by: freddie on February 2, 2006 06:48 PM
2.
S. WINN
said:
Democracy functions under one or two suppositions, first, that the people are fully informed on the issues and they make rational choices, and second, that the mentally afflicted on the right are offset by the mentally afflicted on the left, and the minority of well informed rational will determine the results.
Unfortunately, both suppositions are invalid. The bulk of the voting public are ignorant and irrational, and second, the bulk of the voting public swings from being mentally afflicted on the right or left to being mentally affliced on the left or right.
Posted by: S. WINN on February 2, 2006 08:54 PM
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Reflections on Democracy
Prof. Paul Eidelberg
1. The Nazis came to power by a democratic election.
2. Hamas came to power by a democratic election.
3. Ariel Sharon came to power by a democratic election and adopted a
policy rejected by an overwhelming majority of the public.
4. Sharon founded a party, Kadima, which gained control of the government without having competed in any democratic election.
5. Although Kadima included several politicians under police nvestigation, as well as politicians who obviously joined that party or opportunistic reasons, polls projected that Kadima would win at least twice the number of Knesset seats of its nearest competitors—a commentary on the character of Israeli democracy.
6. The government is ever intoning the dictum that democracy equires the “rule of law.” Yet, for this same government, tens of thousands of illegally built Arab homes in Israel do not threaten the “rule of law,” while Jews protesting expulsion from their legally held homes in Hebron “threaten the very foundations of the state.”
7. In the name of democracy the government pursues a policy of zero-tolerance for Jewish patriots, while pursuing a policy self-restraint toward Arab terrorists.
8. Israel’s Supreme Court, a self-perpetuating oligarchy, renders ecisions in the name of democracy, which decisions violate the abiding beliefs of an overwhelming majority of Israel’s Jewish citizens.
9. Supreme Court president Aharon Barak insists that Judaism is consistent with democracy, yet the democratic principle of one adult/one vote heralds the demographic ascendancy of Israel’s Arab citizens, which would make a Jewish and democratic state impossible.
10. In the name of democratic freedom, the Barak Court quashed the indictment of Arab MK Azmi Bishara, who urged Israel’s Arab citizens to emulate Hiszbullah, hence to murder Jews.
11. In the name of democratic freedom, this same court refrains from upholding Basic Law: The Knesset, which prohibits any party that
rejects Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state.
12. Although Israel is not in truth a democracy, its political and judicial elites derive their legitimacy and respectability from Israel’s reputation as a democracy.
13. Israel’s reputation as a democracy induces the capitals of the democratic world to pressure Israel to make gratuitous concessions to
the most implacable enemies of democracy—Arab despots.
14. Despite the preceding, Jews in Israel, ignorant of how to design a modern Torah form of government, slavishly echo Churchill’s dogma that “democracy is not the best form of government, but all others are worse.”
Posted by Ted Belman at February 2, 2006 09:44 AM