When It Comes to Territorial Compromise, Israel Doesn’t Have a Choice

According to the widespread conventional wisdom on both the left and the right in Israel as well as among Israel’s allies and detractors internationally, the Jewish state faces a difficult choice: either cede territory and the security it brings in order to allow the creation of a Palestinian state, or risk the continued conflict, terror, and international opprobrium that come with holding on to the West Bank. Max Singer, however, argues that there is no choice at all:

While there are undoubtedly peace-seeking Palestinians, as a community the Palestinians have not even begun to discuss the possibility of making a peace that accepts Israel and ends the Palestinian effort to gain all the land “from the river to the sea.” Nor have they begun public discussion of the possibility of most of the “refugees” settling outside Israel. Without debate among Palestinians, there is no way they can give up their determination to destroy Israel and make a genuine peace. . . .

A true two-state solution would finally defeat Palestinian and Arab efforts of a century, and they are not yet ready to accept defeat. Whatever disagreement there is among Israelis about how much land, if any, Israel should give up in order to bring peace, that disagreement is not what is standing in the way of peace. . . .

Many Israelis argue that we have to find a solution for our conflict with the Palestinians, and some insist that the problem is urgent (“Peace Now.”) But the experience of Israel’s first 60 years should teach us that patience is an advantage and perhaps even a necessity. What entitles us to have a solution available?

This is not to argue that the status quo does not have dangers. Israel is not safe. We are strong but also vulnerable, and quite capable of making decisive mistakes. But eagerness to settle our conflict with the Palestinians will not make us safe. . . . Keeping our home here requires that we accept dangers and human costs of all kinds.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Israel & Zionism, Palestinians, Peace Process, Two-State Solution

Israel Is on the Verge of a Second Constitutional Revolution That Would Make the Courts, Not the People, Sovereign

Dec. 11 2020

In the 1995 Mizraḥi Bank decision, the Israeli Supreme Court deemed that the country’s Basic Laws—pieces of legislation that lay out the functioning of the government—serve as its constitution. Thus then-Chief Justice Aharon Barack granted the court the authority to strike down laws it judges to be unconstitutional, even though Israel has no written constitution. This decision laid the groundwork for the Supreme Court’s habit of dangerous overreach. But in an upcoming case, the court will consider reversing this precedent in such a way as to arrogate even more power to itself. Eugene Kontorovich and Shimon Nataf write:

On December 22, the court will hear challenges to the constitutionality of the nation-state Basic Law. By agreeing to hear such challenges, the court is suggesting that while Basic Laws are enacted through the sovereign power of the people, there is some law even higher than these Basic Laws. And the only body with the authority to determine the contents of the invisible “higher law” is the court itself. In other words, . . . the court believes that it has the power to strike down the constitution as unconstitutional.

The nation-state law was just the start. The court has recently issued orders claiming jurisdiction over the constitutionality of changes in the Basic Laws regarding government structure that were enacted by the Knesset to implement the recent national unity-government arrangement. The court’s orders have suggested that such constitutional amendments can be struck down if the court believes they were adopted “in bad faith,” whatever that means. Most likely, the court will uphold all or most of these measures—but by simply agreeing to hear cases about the constitutionality of the constitution, the court positioned itself formally and openly as supreme over the Israeli legal system.

Read more at Tablet

More about: Israel's Basic Law, Israeli Supreme Court, Nation-State Law