Israel Matzav

Referendum law an 'obstacle to peace'?

As many of you have undoubtedly heard, the Knesset passed a 'referendum law on Monday night in final reading (which means it's now the law). The vote was 65-33 - not even close.

The law does not apply to Judea and Samaria. It applies to Jerusalem and to the Golan Heights, each of which has been legally annexed to Israel under Israeli law. Under the law, any decision to forfeit land in Jerusalem or the Golan Heights must be ratified by a public referendum to take place within 180 days. It's an up-or-down vote, run by the country's election commission but without an accompanying election.

The law has been condemned by Israel's Left, and by such luminaries as Bashar al-Assad as an 'obstacle to peace.' Here is a sampling of the reaction, and then I'll come back to it.

The National Referendum Law which was passed by the Knesset on Monday night is "democratic and responsible," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday afternoon.

"Anyone making deals with national implications should not be worried about bringing those agreements before the nation," he said during a visit to Israel Airspace Industries, next to Ben-Gurion International Airport.

The prime minister added, "I think that the referendum law which passed in the Knesset yesterday is of utmost importance. It ensures that... if we enter into peace process, even one which could have historic results, the public knows that at the end of the day, it will decide: Not parliamentary maneuvering, not chance, but rather the nation will decide, and I have faith in the Israeli people. I think that Israel is a wise, intelligent nation, and I'm convinced that if we present an agreement, it will pass."

Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Ehud Barak attacked the law, saying it "chains the hands of the government." He added, "I don't think this law is urgent or pressing," saying that it could "have uses for our opponents."

Speaking more generally of the peace process, he said, "We have no choice but to separate from the Palestinians, it's the only way to ensure the future of Zionism."

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin added his view, saying that the Knesset's image has deteriorated, in part because of Knesset members' behavior.

"The Knesset is the most important place for making decisions," Rivlin said at a conference in Acre, and this law prevents the Knesset from doing so. However, he added, "the [current] Knesset is like a sick bed that people with impressive military or civilian records would not want to get into,"

"This Knesset is completely average... and it is clear that some of the Knesset members earned this image," he said

Also on Tuesday, Labor MK Eitan Cabel voiced similar sentiments, telling Israel Radio that the law prevents the Knesset from making decisions.

Yes, it's sad that this law is necessary, but this law is necessary. The Knesset is a joke, whose members are answerable only to their parties and not to the public that elected them. Sometimes, if they don't get along with the party, they leave and form their own party.

Perhaps the most apocryphal story in this regard is that of Alex Goldfarb and Gonen Segev, two weasels who left the Right wing Tzomet party in the middle of a Knesset session, and provided the 61-59 margin of 'victory' by which Oslo II was passed in 1995. That incident - which has never been condemned by the Knesset as a whole, and which typifies Knesset behavior - is in the back of everyone's minds when you hear of a referendum requirement. That incident reminds all of us that the Knesset cannot be trusted with the country's affairs.

But the ratification by only one vote did not even represent a majority. For, as then-President Ezer Weizmann (who supported Oslo) noted:

"The agreement is not an agreement. It passed the Knesset by a majority of one and this would not have succeeded if not for one MK and his Mitsubishi." (A reference to vote thief Alex Goldfarb, former member of the Tzomet Party, who now backs the Labor Party to maintain his Deputy Ministerial position and his government automobile.)

Unfortunately, in typical Israeli fashion, the ensuing debate over Weizmann's words did not center around whether they were right but whether he had a right to say them.

Here's another account:

Gonen Segev emblazoned his name forever in the annals of infamy back at the time of the Knesset’s vote on the Oslo II agreement in October 1995. He was elected to the Knesset in 1992 on the ticket of the Tsomet Party—a hawkish party to the right of Likud that became thoroughly anti-Oslo as the “process” emerged. But Gonen and his sidekick Alex Goldfarb bolted Tsomet, joined Labor, and cast the two votes that enabled Oslo II to squeak past by a margin of 61-59. For the citizens’ votes that they’d bargained away, Segev and Goldfarb were each rewarded, it was commonly understood, with a cabinet post and a new car by the Rabin-Peres Labor Party.

In other words, except for that glitch of corruption the Oslo II agreement would have been rejected by the elected representatives of the Israeli people (especially the Jewish representatives, among whom the anti-agreement margin was wide even after Segev and Goldfarb’s treachery). But, rather than refusing to make further concessions to the genocidal Palestinian Authority or for that matter dismantling it, the “process” moved on, taking its toll of blood ....

What's amazing about this law is that the egomaniacs in the Knesset actually voted to put the decision to the people. Perhaps they realize that they too are susceptible to bribery. In fact, in Netanyahu's case, I think it will give him more latitude to negotiate with the 'Palestinians' because he believes that if he makes too bad a deal, the country will reject it. Netanyahu is right about one thing though - if the deal is good enough it ought to pass and the referendum ought not to be an obstacle.

Labels: Golan Heights, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, referendum law

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:34 AM