Not the
District Representation
We are spreading out a bit to comment on a story which
appeared on Arutz 7. Arutz 7 did not say whether they support the proposed plan
or not, but it is important to understand the reasons for the proposal and why
we must oppose it.
Knesset Panel To Debate District
Representation Plan
(IsraelNN.com) The Knesset Constitution Committee will
discuss changing the Knesset electoral system from direct voting to a mixed
system including proportional representation, committee chairman Menachem Ben
Sasson (Kadima) said. The hearings will start after the suggested government
reforms pass first reading in the Knesset.
The suggested change would require a change in the Basic
Law and the approval of all five coalition parties. Other suggested changes
include requiring ministers and their deputies to resign from the Knesset in
order to allow MKs to be more active in legislative affairs and allow ministers
to concentrate on their ministries.
What is the current system?
There are 120 seats in the
Kennesset. Each eligible voter who chooses to vote casts his ballot for the
party of his choice. Each party receives the same percentage of seats in
Kennesset as the percentage of votes which it received. Thus if 10 percent of
the voters decided that rights of senior citizens is the most important issue,
they would succeed in electing 12 members of Kennesset pledged to safeguarding
those rights. If 30% of voters decided that building the Beit HaMikdash was the
most important thing, they would receive 36 members of Kennesset pledged to
building the Beit HaMikdash, and so on. In the post election period, the party
which receives the most votes tries to form a coalition. If it succeeds, that
party forms the government.
Flaws in the System and Departures from Demoracy
This system would be a very
democratic system except for two flaws. The first flaw is a natural flaw of
politicians – they lie. So someone might be elected on a platform of not giving
away Erets Yisroel, and then proceed to do just the opposite.
The other flaw was is a result of
another flaw of politicians. Each politician thinks that the most important
thing for the world at large and for the people of
This purposeful antidemocratic
rule is only designed to keep the powerful in power, not to harm a specific
sector of society.
District Representation
But the proposal which has been
bandied about lately, the proposal to elect representatives by district is
extremely antidemocratic and is designed to change the entire nature of Israeli
so-called democracy to the detriment of one sector of Israeli society.
Some people may naively say that
of course district representation is democratic, that is what they do in the
It is important to understand that
the
In the
If 40% of the voters in each
district and 40% in the state overall want to end the income tax, they will
probably end up receiving no representatives at all, and even though they are
40%, they end up with no say in Congress.
But suppose there are areas where
there is a high concentration of voters with one opinion, and those drawing the
district lines don’t share that opinion? They can draw the line in such a way
as to negate the force of this concentration. Either a district can be created which will
contain all of the voters with that opinion so that they will only have one
legislator, or the lines can be drawn is such a way that the voters with a
particular opinion are divided between several large districts so that they
will end up with no representatives.
In the
Why do the want to change the system?
The only Jewish population which
is reproducing rapidly is the religious sector. One in six Jewish babies born
in
How will district representation help them?
There are no safeguards in the
Israeli system. The left controls the courts. The left controls the media. The
left controls the police. The left controls Shabak (the secret, political
police). The left controls the government. For left you may substitute “enemies
of the Jewish people”. We hesitate to say anything about the army, but remember
that Effie Eitam did not become manchal of the army because he is “dati”. The
army is a very effective fighting force against the loyal and religious
citizens of
In order to get the system of
district representation accepted, certain lies would be made and certain bribes
would be made. They would certainly promise that it would be done fairly,
honestly and democratically, but any objective observer of the Israeli
political scene knows that fair and honest is beyond the abilities and
certainly the desires of most of the politicians.
As for bribes, just think about
the money that Shas received to sell out Hevron, and the money that UTJ and NRP
received to allow the murder and rape of Gush Katiph.
So now if we have a bunch of
leftists drawing district lines, and nothing requiring that all of the
districts have the same number of people (and even if at first that rule is put
in, it can be taken out later, even before the first subsequent election), this
is what could happen:
The entire route of the number
two bus in Jerusalem which includes Shmuel Hanavi, Bar Ilan, Kiryat Moshe,
Kiryat Sanz, Matersdorf, Giv`at Shaul, har Noph and we can throw in Geulah and
Meah Shearim as well would be made one district. Then each little nonreligious
enclave would be made a separate district. Each anti-religious kibbutz would be
made a district, and a whole city like B’nei B’rak could be one district. Then
there could be “democratic” elections, and the religious Jews who currently
constitute at least 30% of the population and soon will be more than half, will
be limited to just a few representatives in Kennesset, and the left will
continue to rule, pretending that all is democratic, continuing their work of
destroying the Jewish people.
What must we do?
First, understand the intention
of our enemies. Then speak to our friends, so that no religious Jew and no
nationalist Jew is left not understanding the danger of this plan, the purpose
of this plan, and without a readiness to fight against this plan.