During his speech at the recent Herzliya Conference, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared: ?The Declaration of Independence depicts Israel as both Jewish and democratic.? Let us examine this statement.



First of all, the word ?democracy? does not appear in the Declaration of Independence. (Neither does it appear in America?s Declaration of Independence!) Second, to say that the Declaration ?depicts Israel as both Jewish and democratic? is grossly misleading.



Not only does the Declaration proclaim Israel as a Jewish state, but that, and that alone, is Israel?s raison d?etre. It is simply false to put ?Jewish? and ?democratic? on the same level, and to do so is to make the Declaration self-contradictory. The reason is this: The Declaration proclaims that the State ?will ensure complete equality of? political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion?.? But given the democratic principle of one adult/one vote, Israel will cease to be a Jewish state should its Arab inhabitants become a majority.



Mr. Netanyahu alludes to this very dilemma in his Herzliya speech by warning of Israel?s ?demographic problem,? which is not only a consequence of Israel?s burgeoning Arab population, but of the democratic principle just mentioned: Again, one adult/one vote. Hence it is sheer obscurantism or escapism for him to speak of the Declaration of Independence as if it is a logically consistent and politically viable document.



There is, however, a way to mitigate the Declaration?s inconsistency and non-viability, provided one begins with the simple truth already mentioned, that Israel?s raison d?etre is that it be a Jewish state. This granted, one can then develop a hierarchy of principles that can save the document and the present State of Israel from being eventually relegated to the dust heap of history.



As indicated, the first and paramount principle of the State of Israel is the Jewish principle. Second and subordinate to that principle is the democratic principle. Democracy, however, has two basic principles: Freedom and equality. The Declaration first mentions freedom: ?The State of Israel? will be based on freedom? as envisioned by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of? political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion?.?



Any intelligent and honest person, even if not religious, will admit that the prophets? understanding of freedom differs from the permissive freedom of contemporary democracy. The prophets were not libertarians or moral relativists. They did not regard ?freedom,? as do the vulgar, as ?living as you like,? which makes all ?lifestyles? morally equal. (In other words, Supreme Court President Aharon Barak will find no support for his moral relativism in the prophets of Israel.)



It so happens that, unlike democracy in its youth, which exalts freedom over equality, democracy in its old age ? contemporary democracy ? exalts equality over freedom (predicted by Alexis de Tocqueville in his classic, Democracy in America). This is where Israel is today ? steeped in egalitarianism ?? one consequence of which is the ?demographic problem.?



Contrary to Netanyahu, who seems to have succumbed to para-Marxism, a surging Israeli economy is not going to solve this problem. It is not going to transform Israel?s Arab citizens into bourgeois democrats. They are not going to sacrifice their heritage for Netanyahu?s pottage.



The only way to prevent democracy from eventually destroying not only the Jewish state, but democracy itself, is to limit the operation of democracy?s two basic principles, which can only be done, however, by first limiting the power of Israel?s egalitarian and libertarian (and basically anti-Jewish) Supreme Court.



Here is what I propose:



1) The Knesset can and should democratize the method of appointing Supreme Court judges and terminate its power of judicial review;



2) Enforce Basic Law: The Knesset, which prohibits any party that rejects the Jewish character of the State. (The Supreme Court violated this law when it nullified the Knesset Election Committee?s decision to ban the Balad Party.);



3) Enforce the Citizenship Law, which empowers the Minister of Interior to revoke the citizenship of any Israeli national who commits an act of disloyalty to the State;



4) Rescind large-family allowances, with the understanding that the Jewish Agency will assume the function of providing such allowances to Jewish families, while Arab philanthropic agencies may do the same for Arab families;



5) Enfranchise Israelis living abroad;



6) Rescind the ?grandfather clause? of the Law of Return, which has enabled hundreds of thousands of gentiles to enter Israel, and use the money saved to promote Jewish aliyah;



7) Terminate Arabic as an official language of the State;



8) Enforce zoning laws that Arabs ignore with impunity;



9) Cease tolerating the extraordinary tax-evasion by Arab citizens;



10) Terminate subsidies to Arab university students who support Islamists or who pursue Arab nationalist goals;



11) Remove any anti-Semitic literature from Arab schools and introduce into their curriculum courses on Judaism, Jewish history and Zionism; and



12) Enforce the Foundations of Law Act - 1980, which was intended to make Jewish civil and criminal law ?first among equals? vis-a-vis the foreign systems of jurisprudence used by the Supreme Court.



The above measures ? and I have many more in mind ? will induce many Arabs to leave Israel, and in greater numbers, the more they see that Israel?s political leaders are serious about preserving the state?s Jewish character.