This is Democracy - June 2, 1996
		It was with great confusion that I read over the past few months how Prime Minister Peres constantly attacked opposition elements, whether within or outside the Knesset, for undemocratic means used against the interests of the government, and the perceived interests of the State. Indeed, such attacks go back to the Rabin administration, when groups such as the Women in Green, Zu Artzeinu and others were called anti-democratic for their very democratic means of protest.  Since then, however, other, less politicized groups such as Chabad Lubavitch, Bar Ilan University, several Haredi sects, and even the Likud party itself, have been pasted with this label. What confused me about these verbal attacks was two things.  First, none of the methods used by these movements or organizations were in any way undemocratic.  In the spirit, and through the precedents, of the greatest democratic tradition in the world, these civil disobedience activities, and the participation of these groups in electoral campaigning, were precisely what is meant by democracy.  The voice of the people was being heard, and it was an angry voice. That it was so loudly and obviously anti-government was perhaps reason enough for the government to fight back using the anti-democratic label, even though any student of democratic tradition knows this label to be a false attempt at regaining some political momentum. But even more confusing was that at the same time as the government so willingly mis-applied this label to its opposition, the government itself broke the rules of democracy by arresting and imprisoning tens of opponents with no charge for no apparent reason.  The specious claim was made that these opponents engaged in some speech, or writing, that was anti-government, or inciteful.  But since when is speech a tool of anarchy, or an anti-democratic weapon?  And since when is arrest and imprisonment without trial a democratic maneuver? My confusion ended dramatically this past week, as, in the best democratic tradition, the people spoke.  A majority of Israelis responded to the past few years of confusion regarding the meaning of Israeli democracy, and told the government, "This is democracy.  This is the will of the people." The result is that a government has been elected in whose ideology democracy is more comfortable, and the democratic tradition is more secure.  It is my fervent hope that at no time in the future shall democracy again comd under such virulent abusive attack as it has these past few years. Copyright 1996.  Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.