Livni: Brexit Shows Danger Of Letting The Little People Vote

Last year’s national election here was a painful reminder that people who don’t think like a North Tel Aviv social activist can still vote.

Tel Aviv, June 10 – Hatnua Party leader and ranking member of the Zionist Union faction MK Tzipi Livni offered her insights today on the outcome of the British referendum on continued membership in the European Union, saying that the episode offers lessons for Israel, specifically that the common people cannot be trusted to make decisions better left to the political, social, and economic elite.

In an interview at her Knesset office, Livni invoked her experience as Attorney General, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and years of experience in Israeli politics to lend authority to her stance that the Brexit result should serve as a warning to Israel’s political leadership not to allow democratic values to get in the way of pursuing what a relatively wealthy minority of the electorate deems the country’s best interests.

“The future of this country must be decided by people who have the knowledge and experience to make such fateful determinations as the disposition of Jewish communities beyond the Green Line,” she asserted, giving an example of the decision-making that must not be left to anyone who did not attend certain schools. “If your party cannot attract more than the minimum number of votes in a mock-election held at the Bleich High School in Ramat Gan, you don’t belong in a position of national leadership.”

“One of the most important lessons from the Brexit vote for us in Israel is how quickly we must adjust our electoral paradigm to account for this reality,” she continued. “Last year’s national election here was a painful reminder that people who don’t think like a North Tel Aviv social activist can still vote. Fortunately the direct political implications of such a vote don’t last more than four years at a time, at most, but can you imagine if the unwashed masses are allowed to vote on more fateful questions such as relinquishing territory to a future Palestinian state? The political left would never be able to realize its dream.”

The Left, she stressed, sees itself as guardians of democracy in an increasingly hostile environment with overtones of fascism. “We have to be diligent, and determined, in the face of forces that would impose on us a reality to which we object on moral, social, and political grounds. Large swaths of the electorate seem to be under the misapprehension that the Left is subject to the same democratic constraints as the rest of the society, but that’s just not true – we know better, so the rules don’t apply to us.”

“How else are we going to make our Utopian vision a reality?” she added. “We really have to be in charge. I mean, the Zionist Union won the mock-elections at Bleich, and that says it all.”