The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy

Edited transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, May 28, 2007.

When the Likud dropped to 12 seats in the March 2006 election, this meant that secular Zionism was dead. Moreover, in that election the National Religious Party had to unite with National Union to be politically visible—which suggests that religious Zionism is moribund. I conclude that 20^th century Zionism, which founded the State of Israel, is obsolete, and this means that Israel lacks the semblance of any ideology.

Zionism has metamorphosed into an anti-Jewish post-Zionism. Superficial observers blame the Labor Party for this decadent state of affairs. But the Likud is also blameworthy, (more…)

Dear Friends:

My telling the truth about Israel’s undemocratic and dysfunctional System of Government on the one hand, and yet Israel’s strategic and spiritual significance to the United States and mankind on the other—this, at Hillsdale College, Michigan, the University of Washington, Seattle, and at various venues in California—met with the most positive response I have ever had in an American lecture tour. (Audio-video recordings of some of these talks will soon be made available to the general public.) (more…)

Opponents of “Disengagement” such as MKs Arieh Eldad, Benny Elon, and Effie Eitan, should hold an international press conference and declare that the Olmert Government is illegitimate, and for two basic reasons.

First and foremost, these gentlemen must state the obvious, that the Olmert Government has failed to protect the lives and property of its citizens—the first object of government. (more…)

Whereas the Olmert Government has failed to protect the citizens of Sderot from Arab missile attacks;

Whereas citizens of Sderot have had to leave their city—their homes and schools and work places;

Whereas appeals to the Olmert Government have failed to remedy the just grievances of these citizens; (more…)

[Courtesy of YesOnThree.com. Bracketed material and emphasis inserted by PE.]

Why We Need It

Pierce County voters [in Washington State] demonstrated their overwhelming dislike of the pick-a-party primary by approving the “top-two” primary Initiative 872 in 2004. Voters were looking for a way to regain the choice of any candidate from any party they had with Washington’s traditional blanket primary. [Similarly, in Israel, citizens are compelled to vote for a fixed party slate—a formula for party oligarchy.]

Unfortunately, political parties successfully challenged the “top-two” primary in court (more…)

Dear friends:

A glitch occurred in the computer’s POB files at the post office in Ramot.

As a consequence, all of my incoming foreign and domestic mail—and perhaps that of others—was “returned to sender.” (more…)

Any statement issued by the spokesmen of Hazit regarding any public issue or any public event should not be construed as representing the position of the Yamin Israel Party.

Despite Hazit’s affirmation of Eretz Yisrael as one of its basic principles, the failure of that party to fully comprehend and systematically publicize institutional reform as a logical and necessary precondition of preserving Israel as a Jewish commonwealth compels the Yamin Israel Party to dissociate itself from Hazit. (more…)

The election of Nocolas Sarkozy as president of France is a breath of fresh air. His center-right UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) may be just what France needs to overcome its present malaise.

Sarkozy maintains that France’s political elites have failed their country by refusing to face reality and to institute necessary forms. He advocates a return to more traditional values. (more…)

Algis Valiunas’s essay, “Encountering Islam,” appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of the Claremont Review of Books, A Journal of Political Thought and Statesmanship—a journal I highly recommend.

“Encountering Islam” is a devastating critique of Edward Said’s book Orientalism. Said, the late Palestinian-American professor of English at Columbia University, is an icon of the Left, who “condemns virtually all Western literature and scholarship on Islam as based on imperialism. (more…)