For your perusal, my latest INTO THE FRAY column
AMONA-A STRATEGIC DEFEAT FOR ZIONISM
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The impending destruction of the Jewish community of Amona reflects failure of political will and ideo-intellectual bankruptcy of the elected government rather, than the inevitable culmination of a legal battle
It appears this week on the following sites (in alphabetical order):
ALGEMEINER: https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/12/23/amona-a-strategic-defeat-for-zionism/
ISRAELI FRONTLINE: http://www.israelifrontline.com/2016/12/fray-amona-strategic-defeat-zionism.html
ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/19942
ISRAEL NEWS ONLINE: https://israelnewsonline.org/into-the-fray-amona-a-strategic-defeat-for-zionism/
ISRAEL’S VOICE: http://www.israelsvoice.org/2016/12/23/fray-amona-strategic-defeat-zionism/
ISRAPUNDIT: http://www.israpundit.org/archives/63620318
MEDIUM: https://medium.com/@martinsherman/into-the-fray-amona-a-strategic-defeat-for-zionism-78c365585eb4#.2fwo55z16
JEWSDOWNUNDER: http://jewsdownunder.com/2016/12/23/fray-amona-strategic-defeat-zionism/
JEWISH PRESS: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/into-the-fray-martin-sherman/into-the-fray-amona-a-strategic-defeat-for-zionism/2016/12/25/
An excerpt:
“To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means.” – Thomas Jefferson, September 20, 1810.
“In Israel, the negative impact of the judicialization of politics on the Supreme Court’s legitimacy is already beginning to show its mark. Over the past decade, the public image of the Supreme Court as an autonomous and impartial arbiter has been increasingly eroded as political representatives of minority groups have come to realize that political arrangements and public policies agreed upon in majoritarian decision-making arenas are likely to be reviewed by an often hostile Supreme Court. As a result, the court and its judges are increasingly viewed by a considerable portion of the Israeli public as pushing forward their own political agenda…” – Prof. Ran Hirschl, Towards Juristocracy: The Origins and Consequences of the New Constitutionalism, Harvard University Press, 2004.
I confess that over the past five years, I have used these citations in several articles dealing with the growing encroachment of the judiciary into the sphere of politics — and indeed, increasingly into the realm of common sense and natural justice.
However, I make no apology for lack of originality in re-cycling them this week. For in light of the Amona fiasco, the message they convey has never been more apt, more instructive and more compelling…There are, of course, divergent legal interpretations of events that led up to the fate of the community of Amona. Likewise, there can, of course, be differing chronological narratives of what transpired in the past, and why…But at the end of the day, there remains only one grim political reality…
…in the final analysis, whichever way you slice it, the only political reality that remains is the following: A small radical “left-wing” splinter group, with minuscule domestic public support and generously funded by foreign government sources, masquerading as a “human rights” organization to further its anti-“settlement” political agenda, managed to impose its will on the incumbent democratically elected government, which is allegedly the “most right-wing” in the country’s history.
