Weekly Commentary: MK Gantz - Don't Enable Our Internal Enemies To Cripple
Us In The Hague
Dr. Aaron Lerner 20 August 2023

Hyperbole is a basic feature of political discourse, so it is hardly
surprising that opposition leaders Gantz and Lapid have gone along with the
assertion that passage of legislation which sets that the courts cannot rule
on the "reasonableness" of a law (the courts can still overturn a law by
citing "proportionality" and any other term the courts see fit to come up
with instead of the word "reasonableness") means the end of an independent
impartial judiciary.

If, in a variant of Vegas, "what's said in Israel stays in Israel", lending
validity to this hyperbole would be inconsequential.

But the hyperbole goes beyond our borders.

And there are enemies poised to use the hyperbole against us.

B'Tselem, for example, which is devoted to crippling the ability of the IDF
to function in Judea and Samaria so as to force the "end of the occupation",
is most certainly already mapping out the high ranking reserve officers who
have been convinced that the hyperbole is in fact the truth, so that the
International Criminal Court in the Hague is justified to entertain charges
against Israelis over incidents, as the Israeli legal system which considers
these incidents is no longer an independent impartial judiciary.

To be clear: these senior reserve officers are not cynically trying to force
their views on the Jewish State. They are genuinely misinformed.

But when they say what they say they find themselves cheered rather than
corrected.

Yes, the primary goal of the opposition is to cause the ruling coalition to
fall, so it's a tall order to expect opposition leaders Gantz and Lapid to
set the record straight. But at this critical time they should feel
compelled to make this patriotic move.

And besides, these day there's so much on our agenda for the opposition to
exploit to break up the ruling coalition that there's no need for hyperbole
on judicial reform.
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