Itamar Ben-Gvir is an existential threat to democracy. So is Bezalel Smotrich. And don’t forget the Noam party. Also the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel. And the Sephardic Chief Rabbi. Oh, also the Shas party. And United Torah Judaism — both parts, Agudat Israel and Degel Hatorah. And half the Likud or more. Of course Netanyahu. And Channel 14. And Arutz Sheva. Just as Menachem Begin was. And Ariel Sharon was until he ceded all of Gaza unilaterally and uprooted Gush Katif. And Ze’ev Jabotinsky was Vladimir Hitler. And Donald Trump is. And the American Republicans are.
All threats to democracy.
We hear the lament from the Left continually, even more so as election season dawns, and endlessly as election day approaches: “If you vote for anyone to the right of Meretz, Socialist Labor, or the ‘progressive’ wing of the Democrats, it will mark the end of democracy.”
We know this mantra by now. Trump tried to destroy democracy not only on January 6 but on the day he was born, actually on the day he was conceived. Rudi Giuliani is a threat to democracy. Steve Bannon is a threat to democracy. Fox News is a threat to democracy. The conservative columnists at the New York Times and Washington Post are threats to democracy. Sean Hannity. Tucker Carlson. Now, Elon Musk is a threat to democracy.
They all must be canceled and destroyed — to save democracy.
Even more so, Ben-Gvir must be extirpated from the body politic. He is irredeemable. Just look at what he did thirty years ago. If he is named a cabinet minister, we on the Left will endeavor to destroy Israel’s name and reputation throughout the world and will urge the Biden administration to choke off funds.
Now that Israel is on the brink of having its first-ever right-wing majority religious government, that government must be brought down by liberal American Jews, by Reform Jews (half of whom are not even Jews) and their cohort among Conservative Jews — and certainly by the socialists of Meretz and Labor. After all, all religious nationalists are threats to democracy, especially now that, for the first time ever, the outright majority of the governing class are Orthodox Jews who observe Shabbat, are strictly kosher, wear yarmulkas or fedoras or head coverings, and define Jews by the traditional halakhic standard of matrilineal descent or halakhic conversion.
They all are existential threats to democracy.
Or, as Ben & Jerry’s of Occupied Native American Vermont — and George Soros, Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Kanye West — all might say: Israel itself is a threat to democracy
But who is the real threat to democracy? Consider, as one example, the Courts:
In America, the Left is trying to pack the conservative-leaning nine-justice Court with six additional leftist judges in order to make a mockery of an independent judiciary. Thankfully, they do not have the votes to do so. Nevertheless, at least the American Congress, representing the voice of the electorate, can override judicial overreach by amending the Constitution.
In Israel, by contrast, the Left not only controls the Supreme Court, but the Court has usurped democracy, assuming for itself the right to override the will of the public by ruling on matters without any legal bases other than the justices’ personal proclivities. So the Israeli Supreme Court unilaterally advances its leftist agenda by declaring several Jewish communities (or parts of them) in Judea and Samaria illegal, striking down basic core public Judaic religious practices, permitting other public practices that defy Judaic tradition to be instituted, arbitrarily redefining Judaism itself, even telling the Chief Rabbinate who may sit for a rabbinic ordination exam. And there is no opportunity for a democratic override.
So who is the real threat to democracy?
Israel has a long history of Leftist and anti-religious legislation aimed at denying the freely expressed will of the public. For those who have forgotten how bad things got during the thirty years from 1948-1977 when the Left rule was impossible to interrupt, it is important to knwo that they unilaterally would invade every aspect of private life. The Marxist Socialists in charge of the Labor governments decided you could import a washing machine duty-free, but had to pay double for importing a dryer. Duty-free for a television but double for a video recorder. Duty-free for a refrigerator but double for a freezer. Duty-free for cornflakes but double for rice krispies.
Really. If you bought a television as late as the 1970’s that had the new ability to show programs in color, you had to have a crazy-leftist disruptive mechanism installed that forced your color TV to telecast all programs in black and white. Really — ask your grandparents whether I am making this up. And then, because Jews are clever and resist repression, Israelis invented a device that overrode the government’s anti-color device. So you paid for a TV, and for a device to block the color, and for another device to block the device that blocked the color. You also paid a special tax for owning a TV and they would come to your house to check and impound it if you had one and refused to pay..
You had two choices for the color of your identity and health coverage booklet (there were no magnetic cards yet), red or blue, with the red representinng dues paid to the party in power, that is, the Labor Party-affiliated Histadrut Labor Federation and the Clalit Health Service Fund which worked hand in hand. Blue was the National Religious Party. Woe to he who tried to find employment and did not have a red booklet. MK Chaim Ramon finally made health coverage independent of party affiliation in 1994.
Remember the days of yore; understand the years of past generations. Ask your Dad and he will tell you, your Elders and they will say it. D’varim (Deuteronomy) 32:7.
It wasn’t Ben-Gvir or Begin or the Chief Rabbinate or even Rabbi Meir Kahane who came up with that autocratic stuff, just as the Left now would tax disposable plastic flatware and plates and cups to impose a burden on religious families with many mouths to feed. They invade every aspect of life.
It is the Left’s formula everywhere from France to Italy, from Israel to America: Depict every serious, reasonable conservative candidate as a neo-fascist, if not a neo-Nazi, and a “threat to democracy.” All the while, manipulate the courts to override the freely expressed will of the people and impose the most arbitrary restrictions and taxes on human freedom. Then conspire with left-wing mass media to wield every possible propaganda tool to destroy opponents, even working abroad with American government officials to sabotage Israeli democracy when the Jewish electorate of Israel overwhelmingly prefers conservatism, nationalism, and Judaic tradition.
So who is the real threat to democracy?
Adapted by the writer for Arutz Sheva from a version of this article that first appeared here in Real Clear Politics and The American Spectator.
To attend any or all of Rav Fischer’s weekly 60-minute live Zoom classes on the Weekly Torah Portion, the Biblical Prophets, the Mishnah, Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, or Advanced Judaic Texts, send an email to: shulstuff@yioc.org (Please note that Rav Fischer’s classes will be on hiatus until December.)