The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy

I am happy to report that the indefatigable Bernard Shapiro, director of the indispensable Freeman Center for Strategic Studies, supports the basic institutional reforms of the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy.

Indeed, I think Bernard saw the necessity of making MK’s individually accountable to the voters in constituency elections even before I made that one of the Foundation’s key issues. By the way, Bernard wrote his first article on constitutional reform for the Rafi Party during the election of 1965 in Israel.

Video: TV interview of Esther Pollard

Courtesy of   FrontLineIsrael

Esther Pollard shares the inside story of what really happened with her husband, Jonathan Pollard, who is serving his 22nd year of a life sentence in an American prison for serving Israel and the Jewish People. Eleonora Shifrin of the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy hosts from the FrontLine studios in Jerusalem. Language: English; Time: 28 minutes.

To view the video: click on this link.

Rav Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook, Israel’s first pre-state chief rabbi, teaches that the death of the righteous brings atonement to the people by the spiritual and moral awakening that takes place in the people after the righteous pass away. The tzaddik does not promote himself. His good deeds are often not known or rightly appreciated during his lifetime, since he takes pains to conceal them.

Rav Kook also attributes to war the elimination of evil and the beginnings of redemption.

If we project this onto the scale of the Shoah, it would follow that the Second World War and the death of the Six Million were necessary for the rebirth of Israel—an awesome thought. (more…)

The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy was established in 1995. Its constitutional reform program was published in the United States as well as in Israel. I am repeatedly asked: “Why doesn’t the nationalist camp in Israel or any prominent Zionist organization in the United States more or less endorse the Foundation’s program?” What prevents them from saying something like this: “We support, with some reservations, the institutional reforms proposed by the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy.”

This puzzles me because some Zionist organizations in the United States have occasionally sponsored one or another of my lectures. (more…)

As you know, the slogan of the American Revolution was “No taxation without representation.”

Well folks, in honor of that Revolution, allow me to say that the taxation levied by the British government on Americans was nothing compared to the taxation Israel’s government inflicts on the Jews of this country—and yet these Jews also lack representation—genuine representation!

So what do we see here in Israel? (more…)

Critics of my letter to Senator Joseph Lieberman should read my article “An Interview With Benjamin Netanyahu”— i.e., the person geared to be Israel’s next prime minister.

Given the two basic issues discussed in that article—territorial retreat and institutional reform—Who would you prefer as PM?

An Open Letter to the Honorable Senator Joseph Lieberman
United States Senate
Washington, D.C.

Dear Senator Lieberman:

As an American-born citizen, as well as a citizen of Israel, who has written several books on American and Israeli statesmanship, I hereby, on my own volition, and without being prompted by any person or party, invite you to make aliya with a view to becoming Israel’s next Prime Minister.

Mr. Senator, this is no frivolous invitation. (more…)

Edited transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, July 2, 2007.

Remember how the police brutally violated the civil rights of hundreds of Jews—mostly religious—who peacefully protested against the expulsion of 8,000 Jews from Gush Katif? Did you know that this police brutality was instigated by the government and sanctified by Israel’s judiciary? Remember the government-ordained police brutality at Amona?

If this official violence prompted you to believe that Israel’s government is waging a war against Judaism, ponder the pogrom against the Haredi community before and during the June 21 Gay Parade in Jerusalem. (more…)

Is it a Jewish flaw or merely human frailty that spawned Israel’s policy of “land for peace,” a policy which has soaked the Land of Israel in Jewish blood?

Some say this policy is animated by a Jewish death wish or by Jewish self-hatred. But “land for peace,” as a policy of appeasement, is not a Jewish idea. President Eduard Benes of Czechoslovakia was not Jewish; yet, despite the heavily fortified—some experts say impregnable—Sudetenland, he succumbed to that spineless policy at Munich. (more…)