It is sad that New York City’s annual parade celebrating Israel, which took place this past Sunday and brought out more than 40,000 marchers in exuberant solidarity with the Jewish State, was marred by the antics of a few protesters disputing the Netanyahu government’s plan to overhaul Israel’s judiciary by reallocating some of its power to the Knesset. Activist groups and individuals, mostly from the left-wing American Jewish circles, mounted a number of protests challenging representatives of the Netanyahu government who came to participate.
According to the Times of Israel, the protesters hounded Israeli lawmakers from the time of their arrival in New York. They made a particular point of harassing MK Simcha Rothman, the chair of the Constitution Law and Justice Committee and one of the key players in the coalition’s push to overhaul the judiciary.
It is ironic that the protesters claim that the changes being pursued will sharply diminish the role of the courts as a check and balance on the Knesset, Israel’s national legislative body, and are therefore a threat to Israel’s democracy. They have never really addressed the fact that under Israel’s judicial selection system high court judges are, as a practical matter, chosen by already sitting judges who tend to perpetuate a judiciary consistent with their own judicial philosophies. Indeed, the anti-religious bias of the Israeli Supreme Court is regularly noted and broadly criticized. They are not chosen by the public or nominated or confirmed by popularly elected officials. They are largely a law unto themselves from beginning to end.
The members of the Knesset, in contrast, are elected officials who can and are held accountable by the public.
Perhaps most noteworthy, while the American left has allied with its kindred spirits in Israel in lionizing the Israeli Supreme Court over the Knesset, in terms of checks and balances they continue to attack the United States Supreme Court on the ground that its rulings on such issues as abortion, climate change, gun control, and regulation of our natural resources have not reflected the needs or the views of the American people – not that they violated some transcendent constitutional principles.
Israel is facing more challenges than it has in many decades. This was not a time to rain on its parade in the name of some manufactured concern.
