Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Esq. teaches Torah in Modi'in, serves as the Senior Research Associate at the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP.ngo), Israel Region Vice President at the Coalition for Jewish Values, and is the author of six books, including “The Jewish Ethic of Personal Responsibility" (Gefen Publishing).
The walkout by members of the Arab parties from the Knesset plenum during the singing of Hatikvah should outrage every Israeli. It is a slap in the face to the soldiers who protect their freedoms and every citizen who has contributed to the good life they enjoy in the Jewish state, in contrast to the repression and hardship they would experience in any of the twenty-two Muslim paradises that dot the Middle East. It is the epitome of ingratitude and short-sightedness, a breach of the Talmudic norm (Bava Kamma 92b) “do not throw a stone into the well from which you drank."
The insult should not be ignored because it is an indication of both the political power Israeli Arabs now wield as well as the contempt they have for the Jewish State of Israel whose demise they subtly aid and abet. No nation with any sense of pride should tolerate such disdain, reminiscent of the UN member states - enemies of Israel - who walk out when an Israeli gets up to speak in the General Assembly. I wonder: if an Israeli Arab diplomat were appointed to our UN delegation and got up to speak, would he walk out on himself?
No person who disdains the national anthem or other national symbols should be eligible to serve in the Knesset or receive any benefits from the State. Their emigration should be encouraged as a national priority. But the Arab parties and their voters are indulged because of the lingering guilt of secular Israelis who cannot cogently explain what right they have to be sovereign in the land of Israel, as well as the power the Arab parties now possess.
This power was obtained through their mindboggling success in the recent elections, almost doubling their vote totals from the last election. They achieved a voter turnout of more than 80%, an astounding figure; heretofore, they had never garnered a voter share of even 60% of their electorate and often less than 50%.
In their rush to depose Netanyahu and his right-wing government, the ethically-challenged legal and judicial establishments are aggressively ignoring credible evidence of Arab voter fraud, ballot stuffing, blatant voter bribery including the distribution of envelopes of cash and fuel payment cards - all subsidized by our enemies - and violent suppression of authorized poll watchers charged with electoral oversight in Arab communities.
And now, despite their hostility to Israel as a Jewish state, their collusion with all our enemies, and their self-definition as Palestinian Arabs, the Arab parties and their nineteen Knesset mandates are being courted by Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party, in his efforts to dethrone Netanyahu, either to actively join his proposed government or support it from the outside.
Either way, that gives our domestic enemies a stranglehold over Israeli politics. Consider how the Bennett government was forced to restrain its response to attacks from Gaza in order to placate Mansour Abbas’ Ra’am Party in the last government. Consider also that the recent and future appointments in the Knesset - committee heads and speaker - are all subject to the Arab veto because the left-wing Eisenkot coalition lacks a Jewish majority. This will result inevitably in policies that are inimical to our security and welfare because - make no mistake about it - these parties do not wish us well.
Are the Arab parties being offered items on their wish list in order to give Eisnekot control over the Knesset, items such as autonomy in the Galilee and Negev, a blind eye to their illegal building, huge sums of money for their coffers?
From one perspective, the walkout of the Arab parties is unsurprising. After all, the anthem of the State of Israel does not speak to them. They do not share our “Tikvah" (hope) of returning to the land of Israel, the land of Zion and Jerusalem. They do not possess the “Jewish soul that yearns" and “gazes toward Zion." They barely tolerate living in a Jewish state, if at all; thus, Israeli Arab voices taunted Jews last week with the claim: “This is not your land! We are the rulers here!"
Which begs the questions: why are they here? Why do we allow the presence of a fifth column in our midst? Will the ideal of democracy lead to the dismantlement of the Jewish state?
Those who are here are largely descendants of Arabs whose presence in Israel preceded statehood, but not by much, with a majority only immigrating to the land of Israel in the 19th century once the Zionists came and established flourishing businesses, factories, and farms. No one prevents them from leaving if they so choose - and many do choose to leave - but most have not accommodated themselves to the Jewishness of the state. Both current Arab parties openly support the de-Judaizing of the State of Israel, making it a state of all its citizens with nothing Jewish about it. Arab armies need not overwhelm us from the outside if we can be overthrown from the inside.
Many left-wing Israelis are quick to proclaim that Arab citizens are equal and good citizens, who should fully serve in the government and have unfettered access to state secrets and intelligence. Well, that should be put to the test: if universal conscription can apply to Israeli Haredim, it can certainly apply to Israeli Arabs. Draft them into the army.
There have always been subtle objections, as in the reluctance to force Israeli Arabs to fight their co-religionists who are our enemies. That objection sounds plausible but is actually feeble and unconvincing. Millions of American, British, and French Protestants went to war against German Protestants in World War II. Thousands of Indian Muslims serve in the Indian military, even though India is a majority Hindu state and their primary enemy is Muslim Pakistan. That is because they are firstly loyal to their nation and feel a national identity that transcends their religious affiliation.
So why aren’t Israeli Arabs subject to the draft? Let us not hem and haw but state the reason directly: because no one trusts them.
Too many Israeli Arabs (certainly not all) see themselves not as Israelis but as Palestinian Arabs. Their parties explicitly declared themselves representative of the Palestinian Arabs and receive guidance and funding from, and coordinate with, the Palestinian Authority. Anti-Jewish terror perpetrated by Israeli Arabs has markedly increased in the last decade and mixed cities like Lod and Ramle have constant friction between Jews and Arabs.
Yes, no one trusts them. Of course, many Bedouin serve with dedication and distinction, as do other Israeli Gentiles like the Druze and Circassians. But Israeli Arabs in the army might more likely use their weapons on their fellow soldiers than against our enemies. They may not want to live in the PA - who would? - even though they have every right to move there and live in a majority Muslim jurisdiction. They prefer to live in Israel - but like with the mentality of the suicide bomber, they prefer to live in an Israel that they can slowly dismantle and then destroy, from within.
Yes, no one trusts them in the army. So how can they be trusted in government, in the cabinet, in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset? How can we counter the nefarious influences of Qatar and Turkey when the vehicles of that influence are often these same political parties?
Israel prides itself on being both a democracy and a Jewish state, and now those two are colliding. In theory, both can co-exist. In practice, the Arabs are playing the game of democracy in order to “democratize" the Jewish state into oblivion. This, indeed, is not unique to Israel. The same process is underway throughout Western democracies, such as the United States, Britain, France, and elsewhere. The objective is to attain power through democracy - in order to end it and transform those countries beyond the point of recognition. And in each case, Muslims are spearheading the effort.
Note how Israeli law bans anyone from running for the Knesset who rejects Israel as either a Jewish state or a democracy. Basic Law (7A) bars participation of anyone who negates the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, incites to racism, and/or expresses support for an armed struggle by an enemy state, or of a terrorist organization, against the State of Israel.
How, then, can it be, that people who reject Israel as a Jewish state, express support for terror, refuse to condemn Hamas or even define those savage murderers as a terrorist group, how can it be that they are allowed to run for the Knesset? The answer is that they have been banned several times by the Central Elections Committee, only to be restored to the ballot due to the stunning corruption of Israel’s Supreme Court, which routinely flouts standing laws, fabricates others as it wishes, and holds itself above the laws that bind the rest of us.
Only Jews have been banned by the Court; even in this round, when the Court considered banning Sami Abou Shahadeh, number three on the Joint List, for his pro-terror statements, in its fecklessness the Court just allowed him to withdraw. But how different is Sami Abou Shahadeh from others on the Joint List?
US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson famously opined that the Constitution (he actually referred to the Bill of Rights) “is not a suicide pact." Our political ideals cannot be so disconnected from reality that those ideals will invariably lead to our demise.
Thomas Jefferson expressed it even more clearly: “A strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means."
We are at an inflection point in Israeli society. What political scientists term “defensive democracy" allows democracy to defend its institutions from those who would exploit them to destroy democracy itself. It is what justifies otherwise undemocratic notions such as banning candidates who reject Israel as either a democracy or a Jewish state. It is what the left hopes to do in proposing legislation that will effectively bar Netanyahu from running again. But “defensive democracy" is indefensible and immoral when it only constrains Jews and not Arabs, when its legislation is applied selectively and unfairly, and when it undermines democratic norms without saving democracy itself.
Those who cannot tolerate Hatikvah cannot tolerate that Jews have returned to our homeland after a long exile. They certainly abhor the prophetic vision of the return of the Jewish people as divinely ordained. If they cannot endure that simple reality, they should not serve in the Knesset. If they cannot be trusted to serve the public interest, then frankly, they should not be here altogether. Obviously, any Arab who fully accepts living in a Jewish state is entitled to full civil rights and fair and equal treatment but judging by their voting patterns (for extremist parties) that number is not substantial.
How we execute that national objective should be paramount in our strategic planning for the future. We should not sacrifice the sovereign Jewish state on the altar of democracy. The warning signs are flashing.