The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy

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…)

Anyone still believe that Israel is a democracy?

But do you see how the myth of Israeli democracy colors Israel’s ruling elites with legitimacy? -P.E.

Contributed by Dov Even-Or

January 6, 2008

Olmert Does Not Protect the Citizens, But Abandons Them to the Mercy of Their Enemies

1. The government of Ehud Olmert betrays its citizens. My claim is not based on opinions, intentions or analyses made by members of the government, but on its acts and deeds that are committed publicly; therefore this government is illegal, its decisions do not bind, and it is the right of every citizen not to obey them.

   In order to avoid being labeled (right wing, extremist or as representative of certain interests), I will base my opinion only on facts and pure legal analysis.

2. Lack of protection for the citizens of the Western Negev.

   1. For the past seven years, this area has been targeted by Kassam rockets and fortunately, the number of casualties has been low; (more…)

To High Ranking Officers of the Israel Defense Forces:

Whereas Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to release more than four hundred Arab terrorists (without even demanding the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was captured in a cross border raid by members of several Palestinian terrorist organizations on 25 June 2006);

Whereas Mr. Olmert, contrary to appeals of reserve IDF battalion commanders and soldiers, approved the shipment of two million bullets for AK-47 assault rifles and 50 advanced Russian armored carriers to the Palestinian (terrorist) Authority in Judea and Samaria;

Whereas, despite the daily missile attacks on Sderot resulting from Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, Mr. Olmert is committed to Israel’s withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, including Eastern Jerusalem; (more…)

The present writer is often accused of proposing institutional reform as a panacea. Never mind my books Demophrenia, Beyond the Secular Mind, and Judaic Man, which transcend institutions by discussing the unJewish mentality of Israel intellectual and political elites. To set the record straight, here is an article of mine published on June 6, 1990 under the title “In the Name of Democracy.”

President [Chaim] Herzog, like many others, calls for fundamental reform of Israel’s political institutions. But hardly anyone calls for fundamental reform of men’s character, that is, the character of those elected to public office. The reason is fairly obvious: It’s easier to change institutions than to change men. But anyone who believes that Israel’s present plight will be overcome by electoral reform is suffering from either mental fatigue or fatuity.

Institutions ultimately depend on the moral and intellectual qualities of those who run them. To be sure, well-designed institutions can sometimes compensate for defects in the character of men. (more…)

On November 15, 1999, I summarized an article published by the Israeli daily Ma’ariv about the creation of an Israeli Arab autonomy inside Israel and the government’s failure to do anything about it.

The Ma’ariv article describes the transformation of Israel’s Arab citizens—more than one million—into a nationalistic “Palestinian” entity intended to undermine what remains of Israel.

The Israeli Arabs, it was reported, are building for themselves a whole infrastructure of autonomous institutions much like the Jewish Yishuv had built during the reign of the British mandate. (more…)

The establishment of a Palestinian state is almost a fait accompli. Such a state dooms the Jewish State of Israel.

In January 1988, the month after the eruption of the first intifada, the present writer saw that the national unity government led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir (Likud) and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin (Labor) lacked the courage to quell the insurrection. On that issue alone, the government had forfeited its legitimacy, a precondition of which is the ability to protect the lives and liberty of its people.

The craven character of the government was symptomatic of a terminal disease: the government would emasculate the IDF, demoralize the people, until Israel utterly succumbed to her implacable enemies and the insidious designs of the Saudi-oriented American State Department or former American officials on the Saudi payroll.

I therefore urged the establishment of a “Government in Exile” (more…)

Professor Hillel Weiss, who teaches Jewish literature at Bar-Ilan University, was present at eviction of two Jewish families from Hevron’s Shalhevet neighborhood on August 7. A cameraman witnessed a private exchange the professor had with the Hevron Brigade Commander Yehuda Fuchs, and asked the professor what they spoke about. “I said I hoped his mother will be bereaved, his wife will be a widow and his children orphans,” Weiss responded.

The reporter, employed by Ynet, distributed the video to all of Israel’s news channels.

More or less ignored was the fact that Professor Weiss made the statements while watching his daughter, son-in-law and their six kids forcibly evicted from their home in Hevron’s old marketplace. (more…)

In his op-ed piece [below], “The Looming Haredi Disaster” (The Jerusalem Post, August 1, 2007), Isi Leibler, who supported “disengagement,” has the audacity to bemoan the Haredim for their “anti-Zionism”!

Leibler’s article reveals many gaps in his knowledge of Haredi society, of Torah Judaism, and of Jewish history. A member of our Foundation for Constitutional Democracy pointed out the following shortcomings in Leibler’s article: (more…)

I have been asked to elaborate on my article “What Must Be Done To Save Israel.”

When I speak of a team of professionals forming an “alternative government,” I mean one whose projected cabinet ministers are housed in Jerusalem and are prepared to exercise political power. However, to dramatize the magnitude of Israel’s precarious situation resulting from the spineless and treacherous character of the Olmert regime, this “alternative government” must organize a “Congress of National Salvation.”

This Congress—I have a working paper for such a Congress—will be animated by one general idea: (more…)

by Professors Paul Eidelberg & Wolf Pearlman

I have stated that I totally and utterly reject Peres and consider his rise to prominence a malignant, immoral disgrace. I will rend my clothes in mourning for the State if I see him become a minister in the Israeli government.

Moshe Sharett, Former Israeli Prime Minister
Personal Diary (1957)

Shimon Peres is again campaigning to become Israel’s President. We shall show that his election to that office would constitute, in the words of Moshe Sharett, a “malignant, immoral disgrace.” (more…)

Article III, Section 3 of the American Constitution includes, in its definition of treason against the United States, “adhering to their Enemies” and “giving them Aid and Comfort.”

Israel’s Penal Law on treason is more complex: it defines treason in terms of four kinds of acts:

1. the category of acts which “impair the sovereignty” of the State of Israel—section 97(a);

(more…)

There is a fundamental conflict between the sovereign state and the Torah. This should be obvious to any rabbi—certainly any Orthodox rabbi.

Probing deeper, rabbis should be the first to realize that any Knesset Member or any judge who holds that the law of the State is the highest law is uttering, in principle, a fascist doctrine. The principle has actually been enunciated by the Knesset: “No act of legislation shall diminish the rights of the State, or impose upon it any obligation, unless explicitly stated.” (Law and Administration Ordinance, 1948, Section 42, Explanatory Note.) The sovereignty of the State is clear, and this is the basic reason why the State, in utter disregard of the Torah, expelled 10,000 Jews from Gush Katif and northern Samaria. (more…)

1) The people of Israel know that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is incompetent, that he not only tolerates missile attacks on Sderot, but also enormous arms shipments to terrorists in Gaza. The people also know, or have reason to believe, that Olmert should be indicted for various criminal offenses.

2) The people know that Amir Peretz is not qualified to be Israel’s Defense Minister.

3) The people know (more…)

Although democracy had its origin in classical Athens—what could be more democratic than an assembly whose members are chosen by lot?—the Athenian attitude toward sexuality in those days was very different from that which prevails in democracies today.

In his book Law, Sexuality, and Society, David Cohen reminds us that in classical Athens “a wide variety of [sexual] offenses brought some degree or another of loss of civic rights (atimia: literally: the state of being without honor).” An honorable reputation was of fundamental political importance in Athenian democracy. (more…)

[Edited transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, June 5, 2006.]

One of the absurdities of Israeli governments is their supine policy of self-restraint toward Arab terrorists. When the government retaliates against Arab terrorists, the world’s media multiplies the number of Arabs killed by ten. If Israel is going to be accused of committing genocide for killing 50 terrorists in Jenin, why not kill 500? We lost 23 Jewish soldiers by failing to use air power in that “Operation Defensive Shield.”

Israel should not bother to defend its anti-terrorist actions to an anti-Semitic world. It’s not only futile, it conveys weakness—for it suggests that Israel needs the approval of the nations to defend itself. (more…)