The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy

China and Science

Some readers took exception to my statement that science did not develop among the Chinese. This is the position advanced by philosopher-scientist Alfred North Whitehead. In his marvelous book, Science and the Modern World, he writes:

“… there have been in China acute and learned men patiently devoting their lives to study. Having regard to the span of time, and to the population concerned, China forms the largest volume of civilization which the world has seen. There is no reason to doubt the intrinsic capacity of individual Chinamen for the pursuit of science. (more…)

The “self-hating Jew,” an idea bandied about especially by prominent Israelis of the so-called Right, is utterly misleading. Far more significant and revealing about that Jew is his fear or lack of courage: the courage to stand alone in a world hostile to Judaism.

And what applies to the fearful Jew applies the fearful State of Israel.

To take this a step further and deeper, however, this fearfulness is nothing less than the fear to acknowledge the existence of the God of Israel and the demands or obligations such cognizance makes on the Jewish People. (more…)

Edited Transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, February 25, 2008.

I. Who is Zbigniew Brzezinski?

It was reported in The New York Sun on February 15 that Barack Hussein Obama has chosen Zbigniew Brzezinski to advise him on Middle East policy.

Back in 1985, I wrote an article on Brzezinski for The Intercollegiate Review. Before citing some of the more relevant passages of that article, it should be borne in mind that Brzezinski, a political scientist, served as President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser. One does not have to read Carter’s Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid to know that Carter is an anti-Semite. Brzezinski has earned the same reputation.

Not only has Brzezinski publicly defended the anti-Semitic canard that the relationship between America and Israel is the result of Jewish pressure, but he also signed a letter demanding dialogue with Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel’s destruction. (more…)

The Jerusalem Conference concluded Wednesday night with a packed-house lecture by Bernard Lewis, a world-renowned expert on Islamic history and the relationship between Islam and the West. An author of 30 books, Lewis coined the phrase “clash of civilizations” in his work The Roots of Muslim Rage, written 11 years before 9/11.

Electoral Reform

“Israeli democracy, like its other edges, is in danger—and here I would like to put in a word for electoral reform. There is no direct election here, and therefore the representatives are not held accountable to anyone other than their party leaders and directorates. In addition, minor splinter groups are granted more importance than they deserve proportionally, and the entire system encourages corruption.” [Emphasis added.]

Some pundits would have us believe that the three “monotheistic” faiths have an equal claim to the Temple Mount. No impartial observer can deny, however, that the Temple Mount, indeed, of Jerusalem as a whole, is far more central to Judaism than to Christianity and Islam. Besides, the sanctity of the Temple Mount derives from Judaism, not from the two later and derivative religions.

Thus, in I Kings 9:3, Hashem says to Solomon: “I have sanctified this Temple that you have built, to place My Name there forever …” Similarly in II Kings 21:7: “In this Temple and in Jerusalem … I shall place My Name forever.” Finally, in Isaiah 2:3 we read: “Many peoples will go and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the Mountain of Hashem, to the Temple of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways and we will walk in His paths.’ For from Zion will the Torah go forth, and the word of Hashem from Jerusalem.”

Appealing to Scripture, however, will not resolve the issue of the Temple Mount. (more…)

Tom Carew of Dublin, Ireland, is on the Board of Advisers of the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy.

This article should be disseminated as widely as possible, especially to journalists, think tanks, and policy-makers especially in Israel and the USA.—Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Executive Summary

If the current rate of fire continues, by the end of 2008, over 4,500 rockets and mortar shells will have been fired by Palestinian terrorist organisations based in Gaza.

Since 2001 rocket and mortar shell fire has been directly responsible for the deaths of 24 Israelis and the wounding of 620. This statistic does not take into account the massive psychological cost borne by the 190,000 Israelis who live within striking range. With a population almost ten times that of Israel, the corresponding UK figures would be 240 killed and 6,200 wounded in a city the size of Newcastle. (more…)

Contributed by Arlene Peck

Recently, I forced myself to attend a debate called “The Israeli-Palestinian Debate,” which is the continuing diatribe of a former Israeli now based in Los Angeles, Josef Avesar. When I said ‘forced,’ it’s because I knew I would return home with my blood pressure substantially elevated after another one of Mr. Avesar’s events. These are usually composed of group of individuals of various backgrounds meeting to ‘discuss’ how creating a confederation through private election is the way to go to achieve elusive peace in the Middle East.

Their premise requires a set number of delegates representing the population of the entire area of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, to be elected from the district in which he or she resides. Of course, it also presumes that the electorates are rational citizens of a democratic nation.

I knew that those who usually attend these meeting are the very same leftists who will continue to advocate for democratic socialism up to the point where they are marched into the ovens or beheaded. They don’t have a clue as to what is happening in the real world. (more…)

Edited transcript of the Eidelberg, Israel National Radio, February 18, 2008.

Part I. The Third Commonwealth

There is no shortage of prophets of doom and gloom in Israel today. What is one to expect from a prime minister who, speaking for himself and his political colleagues, said in New York in June 2005, “We are tired of being courageous.” One has to be a total jackass to make such as statement—surely heard or read by Israel’s enemies. What does this confession of moral and intellectual bankruptcy indicate?

That such a dangerous fool—a blabbermouth—remains in power is enough evidence to indicate that Israeli politicians not only lack genuine patriotism, but have also raised the white flag to the enemy. (more…)

ACPR Policy Paper
No. 172

Courtesy of The Ariel Center for Policy Reasearch (ACPR)

The opinions expressed in the Policy Papers are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the members of the ACPR.

Quotation of the material herein is permissible provided that the ACPR is credited as the source. The ACPR requests a copy of any such use.

Additional copies of this and previous studies are available from the ACPR’s office.

September 13, 1993 was a momentous day in Washington, DC. It was on that day that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with PLO Chief Yasser Arafat and sanctified the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on the White House lawn. More than 14 years have elapsed since that ceremony, during which time literally tens of thousands of Jewish women, men, and children have been murdered, maimed, or traumatized by Arab terrorists and suicide bombers. Nevertheless, Mr. Rabin’s successors, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert have adhered to Israel’s agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization—an aggregation of terrorist groups which have not concealed their intention to annihilate the Jewish state in stages. This they have been doing by means of Israel’s own policy of “land for peace”.

The continuity of this policy perplexes pundits. They puzzle over the fact that regardless of which party or coalition of parties controls the Government, the policy of land for peace continues despite its obvious futility and fatal consequences. (more…)

Some say that if the Arab missiles falling on Sderot were to fall on the Knesset, the Olmert Government would order the IDF to retaliate with overwhelming force. It should be borne in mind, however, that the government has constructed bombproof shelters for such an eventuality.

Still, if the Arabs were to bomb and level the Knesset, this might not be an unmitigated disaster, notwithstanding the national disgrace—which has already reached an all-time high. Do not rush to judgment. Sarcasm aside, my purpose is to expose the “politics of peace” that emanates from Israel’s parliament, the insidious road to power of Israel’s ruling elites.

During the past two or three decades, preserving the nation’s honor does not seem to have overly concerned Israeli prime ministers. Notice how they have hobnobbed with Arab terrorists, the murderers of Jewish women and children. (more…)

The above title is identical to that used in an article written by Jerusalem Post analyst Caroline Glick on June 21, 2005, when Ariel Sharon was Israel’s prime minister. The title surely applies to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who told a New York audience “we are tired of being courageous”—this, on June 9, 2005, when he was Vice Prime Minister.

Olmert’s mindless self-incrimination reveals more than meets the eye. It means that he and his cowardly colleagues want to surrender to Arab terrorists—of course under the façade of seeking “peace.” The trouble is that unlike Israel’s ruling elites, Arabs are willing to fight and die—and go on fighting and dying—to achieve their ultimate objective—Israel’s annihilation.

This is the true story of Israel’s mendacious peace process. Very much the same story is leading to Islam’s conquest of Europe. Yes, and this Big Lie of the Middle East facilitates and hastens Islam’s proclaimed objective, the conquest of America. (more…)

Edited transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, February 11, 2008.

If you see a generation which is constantly on the decline, go and investigate the Judges of Israel.
-Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 139a)

At the recent Herzliya Conference, former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak warned or threatened the audience about attempts to introduce changes in the method of appointing judges of the Court—which critics have called a self-appointed oligarchy. Hence this essay.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, a brilliant lawyer, regards Judge Robert Bork as one of the finest legal minds in the United States. Judge Bork has said that Israel’s Supreme Court is the worst in the world—and he said this while Aharon Barak was Israel’s Supreme Court president.

In fact, eminent citizens of Israel across the political spectrum have been very critical of the Court, especially under Judge Barak. Here are the names of some of the critics: (more…)

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. Professor Yehezkel Dror, a member of the Winograd Committee as well as a world-renowned Israel Prize Laureate in public policy, announced, at the prestigious Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, that Israel must replace its parliamentary system to improve decision-making, which failed so miserably during the Second Lebanon War.

Professor Dror thereby affirmed what the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy, founded by the present writer and Dr. Mark Rozen of blessed memory, have advocated in books, policy papers, public lectures, radio and television programs, and countless articles since 1995.

Let me explain Dror’s statement insofar it was reported by The Jerusalem Post on February 6, 2008. (more…)

If Israel should perish (God forbid), the cause of its demise will be the death of outrage.

We all know about the government’s virtual unconcern about Jewish life in Sderot, terrorized and half-depopulated by thousands of Arab missiles. We also know that compounding the feckless behavior of this government is the impotence the Knesset, which tolerates Israel’s despicable prime minister.

But I want to go back to the premiership of his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, of whom Caroline Glick, in June 2005, wrote an article entitled “A Coward for a Prime Minister.”

I call the reader’s attention to another sterling journalist, George Will, to his account of the suicide bombing that occurred in Jerusalem’s Sbaro restaurant on August 9, 2001, when 15 Jews were killed and more than 100 were wounded, many maimed for life. (more…)

I do not see how any self-respecting general can serve under such despicable individuals as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Both are not only liars and cowards, but their continuance in office endangers the Nation of Israel to which the officers of the general staff owe their first loyalty.

I do not see how any self-respecting Jewish Member of the Knesset, who also owes his or her first loyalty to the Nation, can continue to serve under the treacherous government of Ehud Olmert.

It redeems no Member of the Knesset to merely call upon the people to engage in civil disobedience against this vile government. Indeed, I dare say such MKs are little more than demagogues. (more…)

Transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, February 4, 2008.

Part I

The Winograd Committee report and the continuance in office of Israel’s worst prime minister, Ehud Olmert prompt me to update an article on accountability written some years ago.

Whereas the Torah Jew knows he is accountable to God, Israel’s ruling elites are accountable to no one.

Notice that the deliberately delayed report of the Winograd Committee blamed the generals, not the Prime Minister, for Israel’s debacle in the Second Lebanon War. Similarly, the Agranat Committee blamed the generals and not the Prime Minister for failing to preempt Egypt’s attack in the Yom Kippur War, even though intelligence was probably available to the government months before the attack, as I learned while doing research at the American Library of Congress. (more…)

War is a serious matter. So ponder the following when you think of replacing one coward with another.

“What’s needed is wisdom … but there are no wise men in Israel.”
—Jonathan Netanyahu

“War is not to be avoided but is only deferred to the advantage of others.”
—Machiavelli
(more…)

During the debates of the Federal Convention, which convened in Philadelphia in May 1787, a division occurred over the manner of compensating Senators for their services. At one point, a motion to have Senators compensated by the several States narrowly carried. In the end, however, and as seen in Article II, Section 6 of the U.S. Constitution, the arguments to have Senators (as well as Representatives) compensated by the national treasury prevailed.

What decided the issue? The majority argued that compensation by the States would diminish the political independence of the Senators. Some delegates opposed any stipends for Senators on those grounds. A public official whose livelihood depends on the interests or opinions of a particular group of men is less likely to have the political courage or reliability of a financially independent candidate.

Similarly, an office-seeker whose income depends on a party is not likely to take a stand even on vital national issues if doing so may jeopardize his political ambition or pecuniary interests. (more…)

Courtesy of Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief, February 1, 2008. Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.

Copyright Joel Skousen.

The US political circus is an amazing, if not agonizing, show to watch. First, we saw Rudy Giuliani, the establishment’s pre-election favorite (only because the media said so) go from front runner status to a disastrous showing in the primaries—garnering less votes than Rep. Ron Paul, who was systematically denied any meaningful media coverage at all. It appears the public is either fickle or the media polls were just plain lying—perhaps both. Then we saw John McCain with almost no support suddenly rise to front runner status after a barrage of big name newspaper and personality endorsements so unanimous that there had to have existed some guiding hand. The establishment boost for McCain is still ongoing in a big way and is intended to gain McCain a majority of delegates before the convention convenes—which would eliminate a brokered convention where deals and concession have to be made in order to gain that majority. In an up or down vote between McCain or Romney, without Huckabee to draw away votes from Romney, McCain would lose. That’s what the king makers are trying to avoid by manipulating the public during the primaries. It’s time to let America know more about the real McCain. Believe me, he is no hero. (more…)

As noted by professors Rein Taagepera and Matthew Shugart, “a main function of an electoral system is to preserve political stability in the face of potentially disruptive or paralyzing disagreements on issues.” Since Proportional Representation (PR), as a general rule, multiplies the number parties, then, as indicated in Part II, the number of possible disputes in government increases roughly as the square of the number of actors.

However, diminishing the degree of proportional representation—say by combining national list PR with single-member plurality districts—does not necessarily diminish the number parties in the legislature (or in multi-party governments like Israel). Italy recently diminished PR, but the number of parties remained virtually the same because new issue dimensions arose, serious enough to trigger the formation of new parties. This only indicates that politics is more complicated than electoral rules, although the significance of such rules should not be minimized, let alone ignored. (more…)