Because Of A Small Nail...

• The President of the State refuses to suspend himself, in face of eight individual accusations of sexual harassment. He whines about a monstrous conspiracy against him and points at Netanyahu's men in the Likud.
• The Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense refuse to resign, in spite of the overwhelming majority of the public's expressed lack of confidence in Ehud Olmert (70%) and Amir Peretz (82%). Instead of agreeing to the establishment of an independent judicial commission of inquiry, they have set up an examining committee that has already lost the confidence of the majority of the public - even before it has started to investigate the events of the Lebanon War.
• The Chief-of-Staff, under attack from retired and serving generals, declares that he "will not take off his uniform until somebody tears it off."
• The chairman of the Knesset Foreign and Military Affairs Committee is indicted for fraud and perjury.
• The Minister of Justice is on trial for pushing his tongue into the mouth of a female soldier.

According to the polls, the overwhelming majority of the population is happywith their personal situation (80%) but depressed about the situation of thestate (59%).

So what to do?

Simple: just change the system.

This is a typical Israeli reaction. Perhaps typicallyhuman.

When a crisis threatens to upset the foundations of our perceptions, we tendto turn away from the main issue and concentrate all our attention on somedetail. Thus we are relieved from questioning our basic beliefs and theworld-view we are accustomed to. We take some detail, as small as possible, andput all the blame on it. That’s it! Found it! That's the guilty part!

As the old song goes: "All because of a small nail!" So when amajor disaster occurs, we find the small nail that caused it, and we need notlook further.

For example: the Yom-Kippur war. Why did this bloody war break out at all?Why didn't we accept President Anwar Sadat's earlier offer of peace in exchangefor the return of the Sinai? Why did our Ship of Fools blithely sail from theSix-day war to the Yom-Kippur war on a sea of arrogance?

No, such questions were not asked. But what was asked? Things like: Whydidn't the army intelligence department warn us that the Egyptians and Syrianswere about to attack? Why weren't the reserve units called up in time? Whyweren’t the "instruments" (tanks and artillery) moved to the canal?

It was called "The Omission". That was the slogan of the massprotest movement that sprang up and swept away Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan.

That's like emptying the ashtray when a car breaks down. Now somethingsimilar is happening.

The polls show that the public has no confidence in theleadership. But the public does not say: We voted for these leaders, so we areto blame. That would be an unpleasant admission. What they say is: It's not ourfault. So who is to blame? The "system", of course.

That's because our parliamentary democracy does not assure the Prime Ministera full term of four years. He can fall before that. It also compels him toinclude in his government leaders of the coalition parties, even if they arequite incompetent to direct their ministries. The Prime Minister cannot planlong-term policy, nor put capable experts in charge of the ministries.

That's very bad. Therefore, we must adopt the American system. The peoplewill elect a president, who will serve at least four full years. He will choosea cabinet composed of outstanding personalities, each one an expert in hisfield. Thus Zion will be redeemed.

This is the purest snake oil - one bottle to cure allillnesses, without pain and without delay.

First of all, one cannot simply transfer a political system from one countryto another. Every state has its own tradition, its own specific culture, its ownsocial set-up. A political system must grow from within. It cannot be imposed onanother people. When one tries to do that, the society adapts it to its ownrequirements and changes it beyond recognition. (Japan after World War IIsprings to mind.) Only out-of-touch professors in ivory towers could imaginethat the illnesses of a society can be cured by an ideal political system copiedfrom another country.

That has already been proven in Israel: under the influence of someprofessors, our "system" was changed some years ago. It was decidedthat the Prime Minister would be elected directly, separately from the Knessetelections. But soon it became obvious that this system was worse than the onebefore it. So the Wise Ones took counsel and changed the whole thing back again.

But there's no need for us to go through that experience ourselves. In orderto appreciate the advantages of the presidential system, it's enough to look atthe situation in its homeland: the United States.

What has this system achieved there? Indeed, the president has at least fourfull years, but many would add "alas!" When it is discovered that acomplete idiot has been elected and embroils his country in disastrousadventures, he cannot be removed. In our parliamentary system, as in the UnitedKingdom, a Prime Minister can be removed with comparative ease. Tony Blair willbe gone within a year, while George Bush serves out his full term.

Are the American ministers more competent than ours? Is Donald Rumsfeld lessof a disaster than Amir Peretz?

Moreover, in order to be elected president, a candidate needs huge sums ofmoney. Such heavy money can come only from interest groups, lobbies and largecorporations. The American system is corrupt to the core - a corruption so deepand wide, it makes the sins of Olmert & Co. look innocent.

But logic is not the key to this discussion, becausethe demand for system change is serving as a cover for something much moresinister: the call for a Leader.

Such calls always arise in times of crisis. When there is a feeling of defeatand a climate of distrust of the old leadership, people long for a strongfather. Democracy looks weak and rotten, especially faced with the legend thatthe politicians have "prevented the army from winning." A strongleader solves problems with an iron fist. A policy of dialogue and agreements issomething for weaklings.

It must be clear: the proposal to adopt the presidential system is nothingother than a disguised call for an all-powerful leader. One has only to look atthose who propose it.

The foremost advocate of "system change" is Avigdor Liberman, theleader of the "Israel Our Home" party, composed mainly of immigrantsfrom the former Soviet Union. This is a party of the radical Right - to use anunderstatement. In other countries, they might be called by another name.

"Israel Our Home" stands for unbridled nationalism and xenophobia.It is more radical than Joerg Haider in Austria and Jean-Marie Le-Pen in France.It calls for all Palestinians to leave the country, including the Arab citizensof Israel proper, who constitute 20% of the population. That does not preventEhud Olmert from declaring publicly that he would like to have this party in hisgovernment. (When Haider joined the Austrian government, Israel recalled itsambassador from Vienna.)

Liberman, who wants to be Minister of Defense, has set five conditions forjoining the government, headed by the demand for the adoption of thepresidential system. It is quite clear who his candidate for president is:Avigdor Liberman.

The polls say that if elections were held now, Liberman's party would get 16seats in the 120-seat Knesset (compared to 11 seats in the present assembly). Tothis, one must add the nine seats occupied in the present Knesset by the"National Union", whose leader, a knitted-kippa-wearing general,publicly demands the expulsion of all Arabs from the occupied Palestinianterritories, and the withdrawal of democratic rights from the Arab citizens ofIsrael itself. When such parties constitute a fifth of the voting public, thereis certainly cause for concern.

I believe in Israeli democracy. It is an incrediblephenomenon, considering where most Israeli citizens or their parents came from:Czarist and Communist Russia, the Poland of Pilsudsky and his heirs, Morocco,Iraq, Iran and Syria - in addition to those born in colonial Palestine under therule of the British High Commissioner. Like the resurrection of the Hebrewlanguage, which has no parallel in the world, this democracy is a miracle. (Thismeans, of course, democracy in Israel proper. In the occupied territories, avery different situation prevails.)

I don't believe that there is a concrete danger of the rise of fascism atpresent. But we have to be on our guard, every day and every hour. Severalfactors may promote fascist tendencies here: the feeling of defeat in war, thelegend of the "the stab in the back of the army", lack of confidencein the democratic system, a widening gap between rich and poor, incitementagainst the national minority described as a Fifth Column.

That is more than a small nail.