Since the elections, we have heard countless times that 'democracy is in danger,' and that the new government's policies are a 'threat to democracy.' This is part of the false language in which light is turned into darkness and darkness into light.
The truth is completely the opposite - the new government needs to restore the ruins of democracy, because the reality that has been created here is the loss of democracy.
Three central factors have emptied Israeli democracy of its content, rendering it meaningless: the culture of lies of politicians, the mobilized media, and the judicial activism of the High Court of Justice.
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Loyalty to commitments
What is the essence of elections? Candidates appear before the people, asking the public to empower them to act on their behalf. The voter wants to promote a particular policy, and therefore he chooses people who commit to implementing that policy.
But what value do elections have if candidates receive the mandate and do exactly the opposite of what they promised? And would we accept such behavior in any other field? Would we return to a business where we were promised one product and instead received another? Wouldn't we sue a lawyer who received a power of attorney from us to do an action we requested and it turned out that he did the opposite?
We have become accustomed to this distorted reality, instead of seeing it as a total destruction of the core of democracy. If elected officials are not committed to their promises, citizens really have no ability to influence the conduct of the state. In such a situation, what is the point of elections?
The second factor is the media. Indeed, a free press is one of the foundations of democracy. It is the tool that allows the public to examine the actions of its representatives, and accordingly decide who to vote for on election day. The media is supposed to provide citizens with the information on the basis of which they can decide whom to vote for, whom to bring to power, and whom to remove from the leadership.
But we have a recruited and biased press, and it denies citizens the right to receive real information. It distorts reality, inflates what serves it, ignores what does not align with its goals. Instead of being a channel of information, it becomes a channel of propaganda. Such media does not enable true democracy.
The people are the sovereign.
The third component in the destruction of Israeli democracy is the High Court. The lifeblood of democracy is the principle that authority lies with the people, and it is they who determine the policy they desire in elections. But the moment the High Court judges place themselves above the Knesset, and allow themselves to repeal laws or empty them of their content - in doing so, they take authority from the people and appropriate it for themselves.
The new government and the new Knesset must work to strengthen democracy, on these three foundations: restore the basic norms, that the people's elected officials must be faithful to their commitments to the voters and to their declarations before the elections. Ensure fair and balanced communication, which represents the entire people and not the positions of a narrow segment within them. And set clear limits on the legal system's intervention in the decisions of the sovereign, who is the people.
It is essential to make this amendment without hesitation, so that the rules of the game are fair, and so that the will of the people can be expressed in leading the country in the desired direction.
