It is difficult for Israelis not to be a little bit envious as we watch the early days of Barack Obama’s term as president. From the economy to foreign policy, America’s new president is taking bold actions aimed at addressing the formidable challenges facing his country and the world.
Israel also faces critical challenges. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government is unlikely to be able to move with necessary boldness in tackling them. His governing coalition is composed of an unwieldy mix of six parties, some of which strongly disagree with each other on major issues — a recipe for deadlock.
Netanyahu, however, cannot be blamed for his government’s congenital defects. Instead, the unworkable composition and cumbersome size of Israel’s government (30 ministers!) provide further proof that the present regime, what we might call Israel’s First Republic, having performed heroically in the state’s first several decades, is now in a deep crisis of obsolescence.
This crisis has been building for a long time, but its present acute form couldn’t come at a worse time. From the global economic downturn to the Iranian threat, the challenges confronting the new government will be difficult to address under the current broken governmental regime.
On issues of peace and security in particular, Israel stands at fateful crossroads. Increasingly, it is clear that a piecemeal approach to negotiating with the Palestinians or with Syria is futile, as a stable peace depends on stabilizing the Middle East as a whole. Nothing less justifies Israel taking the risks of giving up limited bargaining and security assets. Therefore, a grand design for the Middle East, based in part on the Arab peace initiative with major changes, is the vital new paradigm.
Such creative statecraft, however, requires decisive decision-making power, governmental stability, high-quality Cabinet ministers who agree on basics and broad societal legitimacy — all of which Israel’s present regime, as reflected in the new government, cannot effectively provide.
There is a wide consensus that Israel’s regime needs to be radically reformed. Reforms currently being discussed include proposals to raise the electoral threshold a party must reach to gain representation in the Knesset, having a portion of the Knesset selected in single- or multiple-constituency districts and requiring that the head of the Knesset’s largest party be given the first chance to form a new government. But these proposals do not adequately address the problems and may even aggravate them.
The only reform that can meet Israel’s critical needs is the institution of a presidential regime. I would suggest a system with direct elections of a president and vice president for five-year terms, along with retention of proportional elections for the Knesset, in order to ensure that all sectors of the population continue to have a voice in the political process. The president would appoint Cabinet ministers and direct government policy. A set of checks and balances would prevent misuse of power. The president would have the power to call for new Knesset elections to prevent dangerous stalemates, while an enlarged majority of the Knesset could call for new presidential and parliamentary elections as a check on executive power. This system would ensure adequate executive power, governmental stability and political as well as social legitimacy.
Details, of course, need careful consideration. Some will note the risk of electing an unqualified president. But this risk is less dangerous than the certainty that the present regime cannot cope with existential problems.
It is up to Israel’s political class to summon the wisdom and the courage to bring about a Second Israeli Republic — one that is suited to meeting 21st-century challenges and can yield achievements comparable to those of Israel’s First Republic. Let’s hope that it doesn’t take a genuine disaster to overcome the tyranny of the status quo.
Yehezkel Dror is a professor of political science emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a recipient of the Israel Prize and was the founding president of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute.
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That Dror is professor emeritus tells me he's lived under the Israeli system for so long that he can't truly see its congenital defects. Israel already experimented with an elected Prime Minister in the late 1990s, and soon thereafter dropped it. Moreover, he seeks "retention of proportional elections to the Knesset", which is one of its fundamental flaws. There is simply no true accountability in a party-mediated system of electoral lists. It's easy to say "A set of checks and balances would prevent misuse of power." Yet Israel has never had a system of checks and balances, nor a true separation of powers. Witness, for example, the High Court's repeated meddling in military affairs, and its usurpation of legislative authority.
All we've seen in recent years are attempts to tinker at the edges, or - as in Dror's suggestion of a strong President - attempts to, in effect, "square the circle". Former Justice Minister Friedman's proposed reforms, equally well intended, were also flawed in that they didn't get to the heart of the problem, but rather worked around the edges.
I would think that it is about time that far left idealogues like Mr. Dror (Who else but a far left idealogue would think that Obama is taking bold actions on everything.) to leave their fantasyland and rejoin the world of reality. Currently, we seem to have 2 palestines, and they seem to hate each other almost as much as they hate Jews. So where does this one Palestinian state that's supposed to be living in peace with Israel supposed to come from. Unless the Arabs actually recognize the right of Israel to exist, I'd say they are the ones who need to be persuaded to accept a 2 state solution with everyone living in peace.
The author's suggestion concerning the need for structural reform of Israel's governing system seems worth considering (an American-style Constitution might be a starting point). Unfortunately, he then insinuates his own naively dangerous suggestion for a "grand design" for dealing with Israel's sworn enemies.
Still, he rightly recognizes the risk of an "unqualified president." I would imagine that it would be difficult for Israelis not to be extremely troubled by dangerously "bold" actions being taken by Obama. He proposes to force Israel to make dangerous security concessions for the sake of a politically expedient pyrrhic "peace". In order to do so, he will use the fig leaf of leftist "Jews" in his administration.
While Israel will soon be forced to take "bold" action of its own when the U.S. fails to bomb Iran's nuclear weapons facilities, it will likewise be stymied in attempting to protect itself from a second Holocaust, by the Obama administration's "bold" efforts to intimidate and prevent it from doing so.
Israel recently recalled its ambassador to Switzerland when its president met with Iran's Ameanjihad. Israel may soon be forced to make a similar bold statement in the event that Obama likewise chooses to meet with Ameanjihad.
The question for Forward readers is, what "bold" support of the Jewish state of Israel will the Jews of America demonstrate?