Numbers Matter
The Israel Supreme Court Building. Photo: israeltourism, CC 2.0
5/1/2023, 10:42:13 AM
In Judaism, whenever one sees a gathering of 600,000 or more Jews together the Blessing of “Blessed are you, HaShem, our G-d, King of the universe, knower of secrets ( in Hebrew “Chacham HaRazim”) is made.
One may ask the question what is implied by this Blessing? After all of the hullabaloo by the Left against Judicial Reform the answer is obvious. The Right showed up in a tour de force moment this past week. The media always plays down the actual numbers of the Right at any gathering and always exaggerates the numbers when the Left gets together. The Almighty knows the truth and hence the Blessing “knower of secrets”.
Numbers do matter. The Left knows fully well that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the democratically elected Leader of the State of Israel. Judicial Reform was one of his main campaign themes. The Israeli voter knew this from the get go. Judicial Reform in Israel is not an option but a necessity. The Left is simply using it as a political ploy to bring down Prime Minister Netanyahu and his coalition. The Left will benefit from Judicial Reform too and they know it.
It cannot be said enough that Israel’s Supreme Court is not at all like America’s Supreme Court. America’s Supreme Court has significant input from the electorate via elected officials. Israel’s Supreme Court has none. It is an “Old Boy Network” that is self appointed.
A million Israelis came out to make that point clear on April 27th. Unfortunately, in the past when the Right flexed its muscles, the Left paid little attention. I can remember rally after rally against the Oslo Accords with 100,000 plus participants or the numerous protests against the Expulsion from Gush Katif in 2005. The media simply played the numbers down and discounted the awesome display of emotion and sentiment.
The demographics of Israel are changing and the Left just can’t get used to that fact. There are 7.145 million Jews in Israel. There are over 500,000 descendants of Jews who are not Halachically Jewish. Although Israel’s Birth rate of 3.01 is higher than most countries it is in large part due to the large families in the Religious Zionist group and the Haredi Families. The Left is more like America which has a Birth rate of around 1.7. The Right has gained the upper hand. Election after election in Israel has shown it. Israel for good reason does not want to be polarized. Israel has to worry about its enemies every second of every day.
The Right will continue to win elections in Israel. The numbers speak volumes. The Left has to come to grips with this reality. When they do, an agreement will be hammered out. The agreement will help the Left just as much as the Right. Democracy works that way. It is time to settle our differences and move forward. I can’t wait.
