Since When Does A Democratically Elected Government Get To Make Policy?

Just keep plugging away at that message, invoking fascism every time the Right does anything, keeping the focus off our own antidemocratic machinations.

By Aluf Benn, Editor-in-Chief, Haaretz

If Binyamin Netanyahu thinks he gets to take the lead in determining this country’s future just because his got the most votes in a free and fair election, he’s got another think coming. Since when does any democratically elected government get to make policy? That’s only for left-leaning governments. Everyone should understand that by now.

We at Haaretz applaud Opposition leader Isaac Herzog’s heroic efforts to undermine and stymie the new government’s activities. What Mr. Herzog has finally realized – and what we on the political Left have been arguing since Bibi took office for the second time back in 2009 – is that the Israeli electorate will not vote for the Left in sufficient numbers. They lean to the right. That simple arithmetic means only one thing for Israeli democracy: it only counts when it empowers the Left, and must be subverted or circumvented when it empowers the Right.

That is why having Ayelet Shaked of the Jewish Home Party exert influence over the appointment of new High Court judges is so dangerous. The Left’s only hope to bypass the democratically elected legislature is to head them off at the judicial pass. A Court that does not share Haaretz’s sensibilities, and the sensibilities of the Israeli Left at large, opens the door to the fulfillment of the will of the people as expressed in democratic elections, which would constitute a dangerous precedent. The slippery slope of listening to the people when they choose leaders who do not follow the enlightened ethos of Tel Aviv leads directly to the Left not getting what it wants. I need not tell you the tragedy that represents. The risk of a democratically elected government getting to implement its policies is far greater than the prospect of another bitter, expensive election campaign that will likely produce results similar to the last one. That way lies madness.

We must face the reality that one of the Left’s signature issues – strengthening Israeli democracy – is only a valid cause when the democracy produces the results we desire. Unfortunately for Israeli democracy, it keeps choosing leaders whose ideology and record are at odds with our vision. Some pundits predicted a protracted debate and a tough decision, but that never materialized. When push came to shove, our desire to impose our will on the nation regardless of the electoral outcome carried the day.

It was in the finest tradition of the Left. The vast majority of repressive governments come from the Left, or at least that’s the ideology they voice. Even the fascist pioneer Mussolini began with socialism. Our continuing challenge, here on the Left, is to portray such political repression as a hallmark of the Right. Just keep plugging away at that message, invoking fascism every time the Right does anything, keeping the focus off our own antidemocratic machinations. It works for the Palestinians.

Some leaders on the Left hold out hope that we can recapture the middle and regain control of the government, this time by appealing to the non-Ashkenazim, the descendants of immigrants from around the Mediterranean and the rest of the Middle East. They are welcome to try. But let us be honest with ourselves: do we really want our democratic legitimacy predicated on the votes of Mizrahim?

Didn’t think so.