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Oct 14, 2010
interesting news tidbits
- MK Ilan Gilon (Meretz) has declared that people should break the law and hide foreign workers who are meant to be deported. Specifically he said MKs should be hiding foreign workers because they have immunity and their houses cannot be checked. Would such a statement have been acceptable if a Haredi politician has suggested people break the law? If a right wing MK had said something about supporting breaking a law?
- The Vaad for Shabbos Observance has distributed a letter calling on people to not go to the shuk Mahane Yehuda too close to Shabbos, but to make their purchases earlier. They say that people coming late to take advantage of cheaper prices cause the merchants to be mechalel shabbos. The merchants are upset because they deny there is any chilul shabbos. They say almost all of the merchants are traditional and keep shabbos, and an hour before shabbos already 95% of the merchants are no longer there. Such a statement, they say, is insulting and harmful to their business.
- Dr. Mordechai Kedar has said that Ahmadinejad's visit to the Israel-Lebanon border is basically a dare to Israel to show that Israel doesn't have the guts to shoot him. Last night somebody pointed out to me that Ahmadinejad is threatening us with nuclear weapons and our response is sending up 2000 balloons to show him we have returned home. That is how ridiculous we are.
- Kadima tried to create a sticky situation for Netanyahu, by passing a law that the Declaration of Independence should be considered a set of Basic Laws. This would put the Haredi MKs in a sticky situation as they would not be able to vote for it, and would throw the coalition into uncertainty. The maneuver fell through, as someone pointed out at the last minute that the Declaration of Independence accepts the borders of 1947 as the borders of the State of Israel. if this were to be passed as a Basic Law, it would be disastrous for the country. Another great idea by Tzippi Livni.
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I don't think that it is correct that the Declaration of Independence refers to the 1947 Partition Plan Borders.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly, Ben Gurion deliberately avoided defining Borders in the Declaration of Independence, against the advise of some of his collegues.
I just quickly checked an english translation of the declaration and you are right. however it does say that "implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947" and it says, "AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY"
ReplyDeleteand maybe other sentences that I missed. Perhaps these expressions could cause legal trouble, as their interpretation might be too open for comfort..
Regarding Tidbit #4:
ReplyDeleteThe Israeli Declaration of Independence does NOT accept the borders of 1947 as the borders of the State of Israel. The only part of it that might be interpreted as relating to the borders set by the UN in 1947 is the amorphous statement that (as appears in the English translation at:
http://www.brijnet.org/israel50/decl-eng.htm) "THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in the implementation of the Resolution of the General Assembly of November 29, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union over the whole of Eretz-Israel." (I say "amorphous" because of the phraseology "prepared to cooperate... in the implementation of the Resolution of the General Assembly of November 29, 1947" without mentioning the resolution number, and without stating how that cooperation will work and whether it means actually accepting the entire resolution).
I have seen it stated in historical works about the preparation of the Israeli Declaration of Independence that David Ben-Gurion specifically demanded that nothing relating to the borders be put into the Declaration of Independence since everyone knew that the upcoming War of Independence would determine the actual borders, and he hoped that the Israeli forces would set better borders than the UN resolution provided (since the borders provided by the UN resolution were basically completely impossible to defend).
This, of course, only relates to the Declaration of Independence. I have no idea what political jockeying was going on when someone (the entire Kadima party?) suggested that the Declaration of Independence be declared a "basic law", and how it was really removed from the Knesset ledger (if it was actually put on the Knesset ledger in the first place).
Re: #3, the initiative to release the baloons was that of a non-Jewish MK. He said that the balloons "represent the fact that the Jewish people have come home after 2,000 years of exile, and they are not going anywhere."
ReplyDeleteThis is very significant, especially in view of the recent position taken by those on the Left that non-Jews cannot take loyalty to a Jewish state. Here's a guy who's not Jewish who manages to do it just fine. Why this wasn't used as a case-in-point that a loyalty oath by a non-Jew to a Jewish state is not an inherent contradiction is beyond me.
With regard to yoni r.'s comment:
ReplyDeleteThough the case you mentioned is a case-in-point that a loyalty oath by a non-Jew to a Jewish state is not an inherent contradiction, there are other issues raised by requiring ONLY non-Jews to take such a loyalty oath (which I call a "Pledge of Allegiance"); but those could be dealt with effectively by requiring EVERYONE who wants to acquire Israeli citizenship to make such a pledge, as I mention on my blog at:
http://vehashalomvehaemmet.blogspot.com/2010/10/debate-about-pledge-of-allegiance-in.html
Whether or not the Declaration of Independence really means that the 1947 borders are binding, the Supreme Court will say that it means that, and we'd have to live with their decision.
ReplyDelete