A CALL FOR UNITY IN ISRAEL - A LIGHT UNTO THE NATIONS

I am the Lord; I called you with righteousness and I will strengthen your hand; and I formed you, and I made you for a people's covenant, for a light to nations. To open blind eyes, to bring prisoners out of a dungeon, those who sit in darkness out of a prison.

(Isaiah 42:6)

Pictured: The Menorah in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel.

STOP IRAN NOW

February 26, 2023

Time has come for the the people of Israel to shine their light.

Unity and focus are critical. They must stand united behind the heroic Iranian people - not divided amongst themselves. The Iranian regime, the personification of evil in our time, poses a true existential threat to the State of Israel - as well as to Europe, the United States and freedom-loving people everywhere.

************************************************************************************

The histrionics on the streets of Israel are disappointing and distracting.

The people of Israel must not be misled by the deceivers, dividers and destroyers - those who are subverting freedom under the guise of preserving it. By their continued incitement of mayhem - and discouraging military service they have demonstrated their true agenda - a coup to unseat the democratically elected government of the State of Israel - the very antithesis of democracy which imminently endangers every Israeli man, woman and child.

The craziness and anarchy witnessed as part of the progressive playbook in America not so long ago is now reappearing on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It is smoke and mirrors. The Jewish people and all people of common sense and goodwill must have the wisdom to reject it wholeheartedly.

The fact that the unelected, unaccountable and self-perpetuating Supreme Court in Israel has amassed way too much power is a no brainer.

The Israeli people voted in favor of reform in the last election. The governing coalition must be applauded for its efforts to keep their promise to do so.

The Israeli Supreme Court must be checked and balanced to strengthen Israeli democracy and enable the duly elected government to function optimally.

The judicial coup orchestrated by Aharon Barack began in the 1990s. It has evolved to the point where the court rules the country with reckless abandon - handing down edicts consistent with its out-of-touch ideology under a vague concept of "reasonableness".

This court ignores the laws of the duly elected Israeli government - and makes others up as it goes along. It hears any matter brought before it by any party without any concept of justiciability or standing. It does not require matters to be brought before lower courts in the first instance. A non-elected, unaccountable attorney general is given unprecedented power.

The court does not even try to appear apolitical. Its prejudice against the observant Jewish population - the majority - in Israel is readily apparent to all who open their eyes.

The court has reared its often ugly head into political and policy matters which no self-respecting court in a western democracy would touch with a ten foot pole - matters impacting election outcomes - matters significantly impacting both national security and the economy.

As a result, the Israeli people have suffered en masse. Here is just a taste of the judicial outrageousness they have been forced to endure:

• The Israeli Supreme Court blocked the IDF from razing buildings used by terrorists to attack Israelis passing on the nearby road resulting in tragedy including the horrific slaughter of a young pregnant mother, Tali Hatuel, driving along the road, and her four young daughters, ages 2 to 11 years old by Arab terrorists (even though the army planned to pay compensation to the absentee building owners).

• The Israeli Supreme Court permitted terror-supporting political parties and individuals who openly seek to violently overthrow Israel to run for Knesset. The Israeli Supreme Court overturned the Knesset Central Elections Commission’s disqualification of these parties, and violated Israel’s Basic Law: Knesset, 7a, which bars parties and candidates that incite racism or support armed struggle by an enemy state or terrorist organization against Israel.

• The Israeli Supreme Court permitted the entry into Israel of an anti-Israel BDS activist who headed a BDS-organization Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter. This violated Israel’s 2017 law barring entry of BDS activists. Then-Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan said: “the Supreme Court granted a great victory to BDS . . . [T]he Supreme Court’s decision . . . has undermined the ability of the State of Israel to fight the boycott activists who harm us all.”

• The Israeli Supreme Court froze the District Court’s and Magistrate Court’s orders to evict Arab squatters living on Jewish charity-owned properties in Shimon HaTzaddik.

• The Israeli Supreme Court has unduly intervened in private contract matters holding that its determination of contracts’ purpose take precedence even over the objective language of a contract which, in common law jurisdictions, is itself taken as the best evidence of the parties’ intent and deemed controlling. Barak’s insertion of the judges’ preferences in place of the parties’ intentions creates enormous uncertainty which can have a disruptive or chilling effect on commerce.

• The Israeli Supreme Court’s recently approved the Israel-Lebanon Maritime Delimitation Agreement, signed by the an interim government headed by Yair Lapid which ceded power over Israeli territory to Lebanon and provided substantial economic benefit to Iran's terrorist proxy Hezbollah. The court simply ignored Israeli law which barred any cession of Israeli land without Knesset approval (which was lacking) or a national referendum.

Clearly a limitation on these judicial excesses is necessary and appropriate.

And the proposed reforms are quite limited. As former United States Attorney General and longtime respected federal district court judge Michael Mukasey has pointed out - "Netanyahu’s Judicial Reform Doesn’t Go Far Enough" - Israel should establish rules of standing and recognize the distinction between policy and law.

Our readers should also understand, as the distinguished journalist Caroline Glick has rightly pointed out, that the Israeli MPs and ex-officials who have joined the protest against the proposed judicial reforms have previously acknowledged the court's excesses. That is - they were for reform until they were against it. And by coincidence (or not) they happen to be the same folks who were rejected by Israeli voters at the polls.

It should come as no surprise that the anti-Israel US based NGO The New Israel Fund admitted financing the protests.

Nor are we shocked that Glick and others have documented the role of the Biden Administration in the effort to subvert Israeli democracry. Imagine that -- the same Obama/Biden folks in the State Department that unsuccessfully intervened in the 2015 Israeli against Prime Minister Netanyahu because he stood up on Iran and defended Israel's security are now once trying to thwart the will of the Israeli people by inciting a coup. They are copying their playbook in the United States where they consistently undermine democracy while preaching the rhetoric of defending it. Who would have thought?

The people of Israel must not lose sight of the forest for the trees. They must be mindful of the truth and keep their eye on the ball.

They would be wise to share the truth about a truly dangerous and evil regime that hangs gays for being gay, murders women over hijab violations - and horrifically tortures and executes young freedom-seeking heroes with impunity - a regime behind the great atrocities of our generations - a regime that threatens Israel's and America's destruction while on the cusp of developing nuclear weapons.

The regime is known for sexually abusing women, amputating limbs and flogging. As I write thousands of schoolgirls and boys appear to have been poisoned with chemical weapons and others have been blinded (the new torture of choice) as a punishment for seeking to exercise their freedom of speech and assembly.

And the regime has taken its brutal campaign of conquest, subjugation and murder well beyond its own borders.

This is an Iranian regime that partnered with and financed Assad as he murdered hundreds of thousands of Syrians with barrel bombs and chemical weapons - a regime that is arming Russia with bomb-carrying drones that repeatedly have targeted power plants and civilian targets across Ukraine.

This is a regime that is providing financing, weapons and training to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists as well as the Houthis in Yemen - a regime that has never been held accountable for its role in injuring and murdering hundreds in large scale terror attacks on the AMIA Center and Israeli Embassy in Argentina and the bombing of a bus transporting Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria- a regime that has wreaked havoc throughout the Middle East and beyond - a regime that to this day continues to plan large scale terror attacks and assassinations on both American and European soil.

This is a regime that is the greatest state sponsor of antisemitism in the world routinely denying the Holocaust while openly calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state of Israel and openly plotting to murder Jews around the world.

By standing up for themselves against the Holocaust-denying Jew hating regime that vows for their destruction the people of Israel would also be standing up for the value of every human life and for the dignity of every human being. They would be standing for true justice and peace. They would be saving millions of people from suffering and death. They would be serving G-d and humanity.

Never has the choice between truth and deception; freedom and tyranny; civility and savagery; good and evil; light and darkness been clearer.

Israel is being tested. Each of us and all of us are being tested. We must stand united behind the Iranian people - not divided amongst ourselves. Silence in the face of evil of is complicity.