A Meaningful Convergence: The Supreme Court of Israel Hears an Epic Case on the Cusp of Rosh Hashanah

Yesterday, on Tuesday, September 12, I spent my day switching back and forth between the livestreams of the historic hearing in the Supreme Court of Israel and the talking heads on Israel’s channel 12. There were pitched exchanges on both channels. And each forum was a mirror image of the other, more or less, with respect to discussion of the issues and arguments in this quite momentous constitutional showdown.

I am not a morning person, yet I shot up at the crack of dawn on Tuesday, no alarm, and took that as a sign that I was meant to watch the proceedings. The Court had set aside one day to get the job done, which was very ambitious. They ended up sitting for 13.5 hours, wrapping up well into the evening.

Based on the nature of the questions from the Bench, it is safe to say that – big picture – the judges are not convinced that the government has the power to amend the Basic Law on the Judiciary as it purported to do on July 24. (To get into the detail of the issue have a listen to our podcast dropped on Monday, September 11, Episode 25: Showdown in Supreme Court of Israel: How Did we Get Here and What’s at Stake?

The shock of the day – for me – was when counsel for the coalition government, Ilan Bombach, stated plainly that the Declaration of Independence was not a foundational document setting clear and inviolable parameters for Israeli democracy. On the contrary, he said, it was just a few pages of hastily cobbled ideas thrown together at the last minute. It does not and should not bind the government 75 years on.

Whereas I appreciate Mr. Bombach’s candor, I was surprised that he failed to finesse a more elegant description of the Declaration of Independence and its place in Israeli political history. He pretty much said that it’s not worth the paper it’s written on. Legally, that audacious position can boomerang on his client, something fierce.

I was also taken aback by the appearance of MK Simcha Rothman, chair of the powerful Constitutional, Law and Justice Committee, which has fumbled spectacularly the process of its stated aim to ram the judicial overhaul Bill through the Knesset in a New York Minute. Rothman, representing himself before the Court in his capacity as Committee Chair, argued that the disputed law was not at all controversial. He was quite firmly rebuked by the Bench for making submissions of a political – and not legal – nature. Which, in Court, is the equivalent of saying: "You are totally out of line, Buster."

My takeaway? That we are in the early days of this deep national crisis, which will be prolonged. And excruciatingly painful.

Fundamentally, Israel is a cleaved nation of two irreconcilable worldviews striving to create and maintain incompatible societies: one liberal and democratic; and the other more faith-based and autocratic. Weaving these very different skeins into whole cloth may not be possible.

I do not see the opposing “camps” as reflecting a right-left dichotomy. Those against the judicial reform as proposed come from all points along the political continuum. It is a truly pluralistic grouping.

The same cannot be said for the pro-reform cohort. They are a messy mix of the more classic version of ultra-orthodox, messianist ultra-orthodox and various aggrieved ethnic groups. They are bound by anger but there is no common interest aside from “getting even” that maintains their alliance. They want power in order to even scores (who doesn't) and tilt the nation towards a more Jewish – in the religious sense – variation of the national dream. Western values of enlightenment and liberal democracy are far less important to the pro-reform clump. The coalition government has taken to caricaturing the "camps" as "far left" and right wing. Problem is, it's an embarrassingly silly rendering. Many coalition supporters have no knowledge of or affiliation with the right or left. Full stop. And those who oppose the reforms in their current iteration are not all possessed by an anti-Bibi animus, nor are most of them remotely "left" wing.

This showdown is about liberal democracy. Period. Those who care about preserving it and those who don't.

The struggle in Israel today is epic. No less so than that faced in 1948. They are different crises but each was and is existential.

I won’t dare compare anything to the ultimate existential tragedy that befell the Jewish people and nation. The Holocaust. But I will say this. That as the last of the survivors witness our current proclivity to self-destruction, and weep, I weep with them.

How, they ask, could it come to this? Why?

I have had the privilege of speaking with more than a few men and women, frail and elderly, who openly wish that they had been spared this biblical clash. It is too much for them.

When I was appointed Canadian Ambassador to Israel, almost ten years ago, a close family friend said to me: “This is such important work you are doing. We need Israel. If Israel had existed we would not have had a Holocaust.”

As a beautiful, blonde and blue-eyed teenager in Poland, this friend spent years lying as if in a coffin, under kitchen floorboards. Not moving or making a sound. She had short breaks for a few hours in the dead of night, when she could move, eat, wash. When she was finally able to emerge from her hole, the expectation was that she would just carry on without a fuss. That is how survivors were treated.

She told me about moving to Kielce, Poland immediately after the war, as there was good, organized housing there for Jews. She saw an old, Jewish man. Alone. Dressed in traditional garb. And he was an object of awe. The survivors were all young. They hadn’t seen an elderly Jewish person for years. They had all been murdered. She described to me how these young adults approached him, like a museum artifact, asking if they could touch him.

On this Rosh HaShanah, I will be in Florida celebrating with family, and I expect that we will eat and argue and laugh. And eat. And we will speak about what the heck is going on in Israel and why we can’t all, you know, just get along?

I wish that I had a better answer than I do at the moment. And applying myself to that task will be paramount in the coming year. It is our collective responsibility to keep the dream alive, healthy and prosperous.

Thanks for your support and interest in all that State of Tel Aviv covers. I have no idea what the coming year will bring but I will be here to decipher, share and exchange. What I do know is that there will be non-stop drama. Because. Israel.

For those who celebrate the Jewish New Year, Shana Tova. Best wishes for a healthy, happy and fulfilling year to come. And, for those who do not mark the holiday, I include you in the positivity as well.

Best wishes from the State of Tel Aviv (currently operating out of a satellite office in Toronto, Canada).