The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy

Israel is at war with a cunning, determined, and ruthless foe—Islam. It would be bad enough if Israel’s ruling elites were merely cretins and cravens, but they are also traitors to Judaism. Hence I call them evil.

To betray Judaism is to betray the ethics Israel bestowed on mankind, and not only ethics, but also monotheism, the ultimate source of Western civilization., of philosophy and science. Nietzsche knew whereof he spoke when he said: “Wherever the Jews have attained to influence, they have taught to analyze more subtly, to argue more acutely, to write more clearly and purely: it has always been their problem to bring people to ‘raison.’”

But now the Jews, led by a shameless prime minister, are surrendering to the enemies of civilization, a barbaric religion animated by murderous hatred. Here is what Churchill said of this religion in 1899:

No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome. (Emphasis added.)

Of course, Churchill did not foresee the decline of Christianity in Europe, today inundated by Muslims. (more…)

Edted transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, July 14, 2008.

The classic definition of party was set forth by that great 18th century philosopher-statesman Edmund Burke: “Party is a body of men united, for promoting by their joint endeavours, the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed.”

By definition, a party represents only a part of the whole. While its members present their party principle as conducive to the national interest or the common good, they inevitably criticize the principles of other parties as not conducive to the common good, but they don’t necessarily impugn the integrity of their adversaries. For Burke, respectable parties must consist of “honest men of principle.”

Parties exist because men have different interests and conflicting opinions concerning such ends of government as justice and security, liberty and equality, prosperity and public morality. And of course such differences thrive in democracies.

Democracy, however, stands on the principle of “one adult, one vote.” One adult, one vote is virtually equivalent to “one opinion, one vote,” which suggests that democracy conduces to moral relativism. This is what decent people in democracies have yet to see: that democracy, as understand in this era of secularism, provides no objective justification for decency! Enough to mention the pornography and perversions now legalized in virtually all democratic countries. (more…)

The socialists who founded modern Israel were committed not to a Jewish state so much as to a secular democratic state. The economic goals of socialism, however, require a concentration of political-economic power in government. Socialism therefore eventuates in state capitalism—the control of a nation’s wealth by political commissars.

However democratic Israel may be from a sociological perspective, it is ruled by rotating oligarchy that has truncated and emasculated the Jewish state.

The oligarchy is ensconced in the cabinet. There, cabinet ministers control various sectors of the economy, and do so less with a view to economic efficiency than with a view to enlarging their own personal or partisan power.

One researcher notes that the rate at which the salary of Knesset Members (MKs) increases is three times that of the average Israeli. (more…)

Edited transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, July 7, 2008.

For most people, the mere fact that Israel has periodic, multiparty elections convinces them that Israel is a democracy. This is naive. Democratic elections do not necessarily render the government of a country accountable to the governed, and without accountability, there is no genuine democracy. Nevertheless, although accountability is lacking in Israeli government, Israeli society is pretty democratic.

A better guide to understanding “democracy in Israel” is Alexis de Tocqueville’s classic, Democracy in America. For Tocqueville, the decisive principle of America is not democratic elections or even the structure of government, but equality of conditions. Equality of conditions means that no citizen is bound by law to the station of his birth. Equality of conditions enables any citizen to rise on the socio-economic ladder. A person of humble origin may become a country’s leader. Hence, nepotism aside, there are no hereditary privileges or privileged class.

However, while a country may be democratic from a sociological perspective, it may be very undemocratic from a political perspective, as I have already indicated. (more…)

The present writer received the following report from Israel National News:

“Winograd Panel Member: Why is Olmert Still PM?”

Winograd Committee member Professor Yehezkel Dror wrote in the New York Jewish Forward that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would not still be in power “in any other parliamentary democracy.” The five-member Winograd panel was appointed by the Olmert government to conduct an inquiry into conduct of the Second Lebanon War.

“As found by the commission, the Prime Minister misdirected the war, showing a serious lack of strategic thinking,” Prof. Dror wrote in the left-leaning Forward. “The Defense Minister [Amir Peretz] was ignorant about defense issues. The Cabinet and its committees did not really know what they were deciding most of the time…. The chief of staff imposed a wrong doctrine. The army was not well prepared.

“As a member of the commission, I expected that the Cabinet would resign or be dismissed after the interim report appeared. Indeed, the chief of staff honorably resigned, and the minister of defense was made to leave. The prime minister, however, did not resign, nor was he forced to leave…. Having a highly qualified defense minister helps but cannot make up for the lack of a prime minister with a strategic mind, however good his political mind may be.” (more…)

Edited transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, June 30, 2008.

It has been reported that concerned citizens in Beit El recently invited several leaders of the “political right” to a panel discussion on the proper course for the ‘national camp’ in the next Knesset elections. Only two politicians turned up: Knesset Member Effie Eitam, who is heading a new faction called Achi (”My Brother”) within the National Union party, and Moshe Feiglin, head of the Jewish Leadership faction within the Likud party, whose ambition is take over that party.

The two politicians offered different approaches as to the best strategy for the national camp. Eitam emphasized “political unity” among the so-called nationalist parties. Feiglin focused on the ultimate goal of installing what he calls a “faith-based, ideological leadership for the nation as a whole.”

Although the reported positions of these two religious politicians are not contradictory in theory, they are not harmonious in fact, since most members of the so-called national camp are not religious. What most unites the parties composing the national camp is opposition to territorial withdrawal. This is a 30-year old story that dates back to Camp David 1978. (more…)

After reading “Israel Insider” commentary (below) regarding Barack Obama, ponder the following speculations:

If Obama has Islamic inclinations and wins the 2008 presidential election:

1. It may multiply the number of mosques in the United States.
2. It may increase the number of Muslims immigrating to the United States.
3. It may increase the number of Muslims in key position in government, especially the State Department.
4. It may increase the number of Hezbollah and other Islamic “sleeper cells.”
5. It may diminished freedom of speech and press by suppressing criticism of Islam. (more…)

Self-preservation is the first law of nature. Hence, the first purpose of government is to protect the lives of its citizens. A government that fails to protect its citizens forfeits its legitimacy. Such a government should obviously, and of necessity, be terminated by one means or another.

Consider the Israeli town of Sderot, once a town of 25,000 Jewish residents. This town has been terrorized and virtually depopulated. It has been struck by thousands of missiles launched from Gaza. The Arabs can bomb Sderot with impunity thanks to Israel’s cowardly and evil government. This cowardly and evil government has no right to exist. Its continued existence disgraces every Jew in Israel as well as in the Diaspora. This cowardly and evil government encourages terrorism throughout the world—more so when Israel’s ruling elites reward Arab terrorism with Jewish land.

That the people of Israel tolerate such a government places in question Israel’s own right to exist. Perhaps this is the arcane or unconscious reason why we hear voices in America and Europe questioning Israel’s justification? There may be another arcane reason. (more…)

Edited transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, June 23, 2008.

Knesset Member Yitzhak Levy wants to raise the number of Knesset members from 120 to 150. As reported in The Jerusalem Post last week (June 18, 2008), Levy complains that “the workload placed on MKs had grown to such an extent that it was simply impossible to adequately study the issues upon which MKs were expected to vote in a plenum, as well as in committees in which they sit.”

Mr. Levy also complains that, given the system of coalition cabinet government, some 30 MKs—one out of every four members—currently serves as either a minister or deputy minister, and that’s an additional assignment which distracts from their participation in the legislative function.

Levy’s proposal to increase the Knesset’s membership may be indicative of the incompetence of Israel’s legislative body. Let’s compare the Knesset with the American House of Representatives, beginning with the House. (more…)

The present writer congratulates those members of the Knesset that supported a bill whereby 60 MKs would be elected in regional districts, while 60 would be elected under the present system of Proportional Representation. This fulfills one provision of a draft constitution set forth in my book Jewish Statesmanship: Lest Israel Fall (2000)—which is not to say this book should be credited for the bill in question.

Although the bill was vetoed by the Shas Party, a member of Ehud Olmert’s coalition government, it should soon resurface as a private member’s bill. At stake is the empowerment of the Jewish people and even the preservation of Israel’s Jewish heritage.

It cannot be said too often that the law that makes Israel a single electoral district in which fixed party slates win Knesset seats via Proportional Representation has effectively disenfranchised the Jews of this country. This law has enabled members of the Knesset, especially those who become prime ministers or cabinet ministers, to violate the abiding beliefs and values of the Jewish people with impunity. A conspicuous culprit is Shas. (more…)

Part three of a series. View Part one. View Part two.

B. Neither God Nor the People Rule Israel

In Judaism there is no ruling class. In a truly Jewish community, who rules is based primarily on intellectual and moral character. Indeed, the most authentic form of Jewish leadership is that of the teacher, whose power is not political but intellectual and moral.

The fact that education in Israel is required of all members of the community precludes rigid class divisions. Conversely, Torah education is the great unifying force of the Jewish people, a people that honors scholars more than kings. As Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch points out, in a mature Jewish community the center of gravity lies not in any ruling class but in the body of the people. It is hardly an exaggeration to say, therefore, that the leaders of a Jewish community act consistently with the Torah when they make themselves superfluous!

See to it that the peasant behind the plough, the herdsman with his cattle, the weaver at his loom can be your judges and masters, the critics of your conduct and teaching; then at the same time will they be your pupils and friends, they will willingly and joyfully follow your teachings and regulations; they will understand and appreciate the spirit in which you speak and by which you are guided.^[1] (more…)

This is a must read.
Terrorists’ Crossing (Paperback) by Rich Carroll

The Jihad Candidate

Conspiracy theories make for interesting novels when the storyline is not so absurd that it can grasp our attention. ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ and ‘Seven Days in May’ are examples of plausible chains of events that captures the reader’s imagination at best-seller level. ‘What if’ has always been the solid grist of fiction.

Get yourself something cool to drink, find a relaxing position, but before you continue, visualize the television photos of two jet airliners smashing into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and remind yourself this cowardly act of Muslim terror was planned for eight years.

How long did it take Islam and their oil money to find a candidate for President of the United States? (more…)

Every American—nay, all thinking people—should read Thomas Sowell’s A Man of Letters. Sowell would have my vote if he were any party’s presidential candidate. Sowell is not an “African-American.” He is an American who represents all that is great about the American heritage, today endangered by Barack Obama.

Courtesy of National Review Online.

An Old Newness

By Thomas Sowell

Many years ago, a great hitter named Paul Waner was nearing the end of his long career. He entered a ballgame with 2,999 hits—one hit away from the 3,000-hit landmark—which so many hitters want to reach, but which relatively few actually do reach.

Waner hit a ball that the fielder did not handle cleanly but the official scorer called it a hit, making it Waner’s 3,000th. Paul Waner then sent word to the official scorer that he did not want that questionable hit to be the one that put him over the top. (more…)

A. Question: Why are Israeli policy-makers so preoccupied with making peace with Israel’s Arab neighbors?

1. 1. They love peace.
2. 2. They are timid.
3. 3. They lack conviction in the justice of Israel’s cause.
4. 4. They are stupid.
5. 5. They are political opportunists.

Answer: All of the above.

B. Brief enlargement of the five listed answers concerning Israeli policy-makers: (more…)

By Hugh Fitzgerald
Courtesy of Jihad Watch

What Obama Has to Do Now

The promise by Obama in his AIPAC speech to “personally” take part in a renewal of Israeli-”Palestinian” negotiations is worrisome. Very. It should fill everyone with anxiety. For everything about Obama until now—the people he has allowed to tell him all about “Palestine” (Rashid Khalidi), the people who were his early financial backers (Anton Rezko, who in turn is backed by an Iraqi billionaire), his early political backers (Rev. Wright, possibly Louis Farrakhan), his choice of foreign-policy advisers (Zbigniew Brezezinski, and Samantha Powers), his endorsement by Jimmy Carter, all point in one direction.

And his endorsement of one undivided capital is “just words,” until we see exactly what he means by this. And he should be asked. Does he mean Jerusalem as the Israelis now define it, and include the Old City? And what else does he mean? (more…)

I call upon Christians, indeed, Gentiles, everywhere, to speak up. Speak up for your own sake as well as for the sale of Israel, by organized and vehement opposition to the Olmert Government’s plan to withdraw from eastern Jerusalem and abandon the Holy of Holies, the Temple Mount.

Bear in mind that this treacherous plan has the support of Israel’s very Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and its impotent Defense Minister Ehud Barak. One of these ministers may succeed Ehud Olmert as Israel’s Prime Minister, and neither of them is your friend. Let me explain.

In one respect the Temple Mount is of greater significance to Christians and the Gentile world than it is to Israel. Listen to the voice of Israel speaking through its leaders, the disparaged Pharisees regarding the sacrifices of seventy calves during the eight days of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, and note their humanitarianism.

In Leviticus Rabbah we read: “If the nations of the world had known how useful the Temple was to them, they would have surrounded it with fortified camps to protect it, for it was more useful to them than to Israel.” (more…)

Edited transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, June 2, 2008.

Part I: Corruption

I have pointed out many times that corruption in Israel’s government is not simply the consequence of dishonest politicians. Political corruption in Israel has been institutionalized; and as I will show in a moment, so has treason!

The Jerusalem Post’s brilliant columnist Caroline Glick touches the surface—but only the surface—of institutionalized corruption in her column of May 30. With less than her usual clarity, she attributes political corruption to the “relative weakness” of the Knesset:

The Knesset’s relative weakness [she writes] is a function of Israel’s proportional election system. This system—whereby voters select a party rather than individual candidates at the ballot box—promotes the political fortunes of the corrupt and the weak at the expense of the honest and strong. Similarly, it prolongs the life span of coalition governments with a tendency toward corruption and failed policy-making, at the expense of coalition governments [sic] informed by principle and the national interest.

The “weakness:” Glick attributes to the Knesset is not solely the result of, and does not begin with, proportional representation. (more…)

Two-and-a-half cheers for Caroline Glick. In reaction the Ehud Olmert corruption case, Caroline Glick has begun to advance the position which the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy has so frequently and extensively articulated during the past thirteen years: the need to scrap Israel’s dysfunctional and corruption-laden system of proportional representation.

In partial explanation of governmental corruption and incompetence in Israel, Glick writes (The Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2008):

“The Knesset’s relative weakness [really its shady character and lack of accountability—PE] is a function of Israel’s proportional election system. This system—whereby voters select a party rather than individual candidates at the ballot box—promotes the political fortunes of the corrupt and the weak at the expense of the honest and strong. Similarly, it prolongs the life span of coalition governments with a tendency toward corruption and failed policy-making, at the expense of coalition governments [sic] informed by principle and the national interest.” (more…)

First published in December, 1994; Postscript added 2008.

When reservist Shmuel Meiri was attacked by Arabs in Ramallah on December 14, 1994, the photographs taken of the faces of his assailants convey a hatred of visceral and demonic proportions. To appreciate how much Moslems hate Jews, consider first what Moslem Chechens think and feel about Russians.

Writing on the subject in The New York Times (December 18, 1994), Steven Erlanger quotes two celebrated Russian authors, Tolstoi and Lermontov. Tolstoi writes of the Russian destruction of a Chechen village: “The emotion felt by every Chechen, old and young, was stronger than hatred. It was not hatred, it was a refusal to recognize these Russian dogs as men at all, and a feeling of such disgust [and] revulsion … that the urge to destroy them, like the urge to destroy rats, venomous spiders, or wolves, ִwas an instinct as natural as self-preservation.”

Lermontov summarized the Chechen in the Russian imagination this way: “Their god is freedom, their law is war … Their hatred is as boundless as their love.” That this boundless hatred describes the feelings of Muslims toward Jews is evident in the faces of those Arabs who attacked Shmuel Meiri. (more…)

Even if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did not pocket a shekel of the hundreds of thousands of dollars handed over to him in cash by the American tycoon Morris Talansky, the cloud of suspicion hanging over Olmert makes it impossible for him to fulfill the vital duties of his office. He should step down now—or be compelled to do so.

I will not mention the names of other public officials who, because of public suspicion of official misdeeds, resigned their offices and did so even though subsequently shown to be entirely innocent.

Official corruption in Israel is the highest or close to the highest among developed countries, at least as reported by more than one international organization dealing with such matters. What is commonly unknown, however, is that corruption in Israel’s government is not simply the consequence of dishonest politicians. (more…)