Weekly Commentary: What Pres. Katzav Could Have Said

2005-08-11

Aaron Lerner

When Israel's President Katzav addressed the nation this week I was hoping he would use his mostly ceremonial role to help advance national unity. But Katzav instead opted to pay lip service to the Jewish communities slated for expulsion next week while declining to address the very serous problems associated with how the disengagement plan was approved - this as he failed to call for restraint on the part of security forces implementing the plan [despite incidents of police violence this week].

Here is how Avraham Burg, a former speaker of the Knesset from the Leftist Labor Party put it in an Op-Ed in Haaretz on 5 August:

"The process by which the plan was approved smashed to smithereens what little remained of Israel's political culture and doomed us to many more years of disabled, crippled democracy, conducted in the shadow of the anarchy of this period. The prime minister gave the boot to every political convention and simply led everyone down the garden path. Just as there is no capital market without a stock exchange and no family without partners, so there is no democracy or politics without parties. The disrespect shown by the prime minister and his associates for resolutions passed by his own party - their contempt and utter disregard - destroyed the basic concept of political life..."

Instead Katzav termed the disengagement "a plan approved by the Knesset - the voice of the People" and noted that the Supreme Court hadn't overruled it.

What could have Katzav said?

"Next week the Israel Police, with the assistance of the IDF, will begin to expel the Jewish communities in Gush Katif per the disengagement plan. I am not addressing you here tonight to claim that the process by which the plan was formulated or approved is a golden moment for Israeli democracy. I would be hard put to say that given that the losing party's position on the key issue of the elections - unilateral withdrawal - is being implemented.

But that's not the point.

The point is that the plan was approved by the cabinet and the Knesset and the Supreme Court has signed off on its legality.

You may think that it stinks, but it is legal.

And while people certainly have the right to exploit their right to freedom of expression to the fullest to try and get the system to either change its decision or give the People the opportunity to restate their position on disengagement at the ballot box, the formal rules don't obligate the system to heed these protests.

What the system does, however, provide for, is ballot boxes.

When they vote to set the list of Knesset candidates, Likud Party Central Committee members can punish those Likud leaders who they feel violated their mandate.

When they vote to elect a chairman of the Likud, the Likud rank and file can do the same.

And, of course, every adult citizen will have the chance to punish or reward parties for what has transpired come election day.

I fully appreciate that none of this will bring solace to those who oppose the expulsion of whole Jewish communities from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria.

But this is what our system offers. Today. [Perhaps there is a place for legislation to require giving the People a chance to approve or reject specific plans. But it is not on the books yet.]

And all of us are in this system together - for better or worse."

Source: IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis