Between ultra-Orthodox draft and Knesset coalition, Israel's democracy is too complicated - opinion

To govern in Israel is more complicated than in other democracies. Because in a Jewish state, much of the legislation is based on the influence of Torah law and values.

Our parliament, the Knesset, is made up of 120 members from a variety of parties, some of which advocate religious fundamentalist legislation that is difficult to accommodate in today’s political climate in our region.

At our general elections, the voters do not have the opportunity to choose a member who represents their local constituency but instead vote for one of the many political parties that hope to gain seats in the Knesset.

Each party nominates several names in order of preference to be their delegates in the Knesset. So, in effect, the eventual members of Knesset are not representatives of the people, but delegates of those parties that achieve the highest number of votes. The number of delegates is proportionate to the number of votes.

That, in my view, is not the perfect democratic system of government of which Israel prides itself, because the loyalty of the Knesset members is to their party. They are not accountable to the voters who have no regulated direct access to members for help with any administrative grievances.

What we need is for the country to be divided into, let’s say, 60 local constituencies in which any political party can put up their chosen candidate.

The citizens vote to choose one who will represent them in the Knesset. The candidate who receives the most votes is elected to represent the whole constituency in parliament. He or she is then accountable to the voters and must hold regular sessions in their area at which any local resident can seek advice.

If the representatives don’t serve the constituency as expected, such as advocating in the Knesset for the improvement of any deficiencies in their local area of responsibility, whether in an industrially based or agriculturally based constituency, they risk losing their seat at the next election. All this is real democracy. In other words, each eligible citizen has two votes, one in his constituency and one for a political party. That would be an acceptable compromise.

Such a system has not yet been seriously considered because it would demand accountability from members of Knesset and encroach on their comfortable existence of: “You rub my back and I’ll rub yours.” It’s a system that lends itself to ethical irregularities that occasionally tempt susceptible officials.

The Houthis in Yemen still get assistance from their paymaster Iran, and the IDF is unfortunately incurring serious casualties while heavily involved in routing out the entrenched Hamas terrorists in Gaza and trying to free the hostages still imprisoned in their dungeons. That’s why Israel’s current situation requires a large, strong, and highly trained defense force.

Most of our eligible young men and women responsibly answer the call to serve. Some, mainly observant women, choose the available alternative to military service and do their duty by serving the prescribed time in Sherut Leumi (National Service), work of national importance.

Many men who are no longer of call-up age feel the duty to defend the country and offer their services as volunteers. Some have even made the supreme sacrifice while on duty in Gaza or defending our biblical heartland from terrorist attacks. Such is their commitment to our only Jewish state and Zionism.

They don’t, however, show any scruples in benefiting from the services provided by their local municipality or even the state.

The law does, however, provide that Israeli citizens can be exempt from service in the IDF if an evaluation finds him or her to meet specific criteria. Grounds for exemption are expatriate status, medical or psychological issues, criminal record subject to review, and conscientious objection. The latter is seldom invoked.

Then there is a large contingent of young haredi men who profess to attend Torah study institutes, yeshivot, and refuse to report for IDF service.

To provide false information to avoid conscription is equivalent to desertion, and offenders are liable to receive a lengthy prison sentence. Unfortunately, such punishment has not been carried out because Prime Minister Netanyahu fears that other religious parties would join Degel Hatorah and Shas in bolting the government over stricter enforcement of the draft law, and that would cause the government to fall.

Not a great tragedy because the country’s existence is more important than any ideological sector.

The former speaker of Knesset and Chairman of the powerful Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, who was determined to strengthen the draft law and conscription of haredi youth, has been dismissed from his post by Prime Minister Netanyahu.

This time it’s the prime minister who chooses to surrender to ultimatums rather than stick to his principles. Last year, he urged his party, the Likud, to back the draft law, and they unanimously approved his plan to end the exemption of conscription for ultra-Orthodox youth.

Now, he did a U-turn in opposing the draft law and urging his Likud followers to sacrifice a brilliant minister to save his very shaky government, which will fall, sooner or later, because of ultra-Orthodox demands that may be unsustainable in light of the national emergency and interest.

The reason given by the ultra-Orthodox hierarchy for ordering refusal to serve dates back to the arrangement made by David Ben-Gurion at the founding of the state that the then-400 serious Torah students were exempt from military service because the study of Torah in our Jewish state is of the utmost importance. Today, this number has increased to an estimated unsustainable 80,000, of which a large percentage are defrauding the state, while those who serve are putting their lives on the line to defend it.

Of course, Israel stands on Torah values. And the study of scriptures must be maintained to be taught to future generations. But to fraudulently pretend to study Torah as an excuse to evade conscription to defend our one and only Jewish state is hypocrisy, not practicing Torah values.