Liberal - The Added Value of "Democratic and Jewish" | Israel today

Behind the words.

The fact that in his first and most important speech to the nation, Prime Minister Yair Lapid - unlike his predecessor, Naftali Bennett - referred to a political process of which the Palestinians are a part, made headlines.

But there was an equally significant statement in the speech, which was taken for granted by many and did not receive similar interest, and this is the "liberal" addition that Lapid added to the "Jewish-democratic" state.

It was the Prime Minister of Hungary, Victor Urban, who adopted the concept of "illiberal democracy", and he found brothers in the Vyshgrad group of four Eastern European countries that had been liberated from the Soviet bloc.

The leaders of these countries, who have curtailed freedom of expression and harmed the judiciary and other bodies responsible for approving the executive, have thought, and some still do, that by giving a so-called scientific name to a regime that loses its democratic characteristics, its states can be treated with respect.

It is not only Benjamin Netanyahu who feels close to Eastern European "disillusionment" with liberalism.

Even an academic like Daniel Gordis, the vice president of the Shalem Institute affiliated with the right, refers to Israel, in his important book "Distant Relatives," as an illiberal democracy.

He states that Israel could not fulfill its goal as a liberal democracy.

According to him, the widening gap between American Jewry and Israeli Jewry stems from the fact that Israelis have given up liberal democracy while American Jews have given up the sense of belonging that accompanies the ethnic democracy that characterizes Israel.

Lapid did not add the word "liberal" to embellish his speech with something that sounds agreed and accepted, almost like "peace and security."

He took advantage of the moments of national listening to say that for him the "liberal" must come along with the "democratic" and is not in conflict with the "Jewish".

The liberal conception is an ongoing effort to expand the boundaries of freedom of expression, alongside many other freedoms.

Ethnic democracy restricts democratic rights to those that are consistent with what was perceived at that point in time by the government as the national interest.

This is not democracy.

Between Hadas and Cassidy.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a brave intern who served as assistant to former President Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff, testified before a congressional committee that discussed the events of January 6, 2021 and examines Trump's involvement in the Capitol events.

She talked about Trump's behavior after being defeated by Biden, and the picture she paints - including tantrums in which he throws his dinner plate against the wall in the White House - raises difficult questions about the behavior of the man who is supposed to be a normative role model.

The climax of her testimony came when she said that when federal police officers announced that the protesters were armed, the president ordered them not to take their weapons from the protesters, because in no case would they aim the weapon at him.

criminal?

shocking?

Anyway, just keep in mind that so many people in America are longing for his return to power.

In Jerusalem this week, Hadas Klein, Arnon Milchen's brave assistant, began her testimony in the gift bag.

The stories have already been told, and you are amazed time and time again at the method, which has nothing to do with receiving an occasional gift in the days of Gnusia, and nothing.

The most remarkable thing, though not a news flash either, is the lack of shame in Balfour from the assertive demand for "full" renewal.

And again, these would mean that you have to spend for these processes.

But any normal citizen who listens to testify, surely says to himself, that he would flip through the air seven times before coming to his rich relative demanding to provide him with "gifts" on an orderly and unperceived scale, and to come up with complaints if he did not like it ... it is beyond impudence.

Beyond indulgence.

Beyond the feeling that everything is allowed. 

Were we wrong?

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