Sore Losers - February 24, 1999
Yesterday's vote by the Knesset to legalize the Arutz-7 radio network is about ten years late in coming.  The station is the only national radio network not controlled by the government.  It has the best news presentations, and the most unbiased coverage of any electronic media outlet in the country.  Indeed, it is sometimes comical to hear the news on the other national networks.

A number of months ago, I was listening to a radio phone-in show on the Reshet Aleph network.  One caller opened his remarks with the preface, "I heard last night on Arutz-7...". He never got another word in.  The host of the show promptly cut him off, branded him a fanatic, and said that "we cannot have opinions of such fanatics on the radio."  He then took the next caller.

The media in Israel is largely controlled by the left-wing of Israeli society, the powerful elites who are primally afraid of losing their iron grip on power.  Arutz-7 is the exception.  The Likud, and its right-wing governments, have failed miserably in correcting the imbalance of power in this country.  They have failed to install people from outside the elites in leadership positions in places like the Histadrut, the Jewish Agency, or the Israel Broadcasting Authority.  It is these bodies that control much of the non-governmental power in this country, and they often have untold influence in determining policy for the government as well.

Arutz-7 has for ten years stood in the face of this immense power structure built by the left-wing elite.  They have been a thorn in the side of leftist-controlled media, and have often beaten these media  outlets to news stories.  Arutz-7 is the only electronic media outlet that honestly represents Zionism, the pioneering spirit that continues to drive new settlement throughout Israel -- especially in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.

But for ten years, Arutz-7 has been forced to broadcast from the ocean, aboard a boat, in order to avoid prosecution for illegal broadcasting from Israeli soil.  Successive governments have sought to prosecute them for just this, and Arutz-7 has successfully avoided criminal convictions as a result of the ship-based broadcasting.  Despite supposed ideological convergence, Likud-led governments have been only slightly less guilty than those of the left.  This is cause for wonder, since Arutz-7 can rightly claim a large measure of credit for putting Binyamin Netanyahu into power three years ago.  Upon Netanyahu's election, many analysts, including this one, predicted that the legalization of Arutz-7 would be among the government's first orders of business.  The installation of Limor Livnat, a firm supporter of Arutz-7, as Minister of Communications, only bolstered that opinion.

It seems, though, that rather than paying homage to the efforts of Arutz-7, Netanyahu had other things to do, like give away Hevron and Northern Samaria.  Rather than acknowledging his debt and legalizing Arutz-7 immediately, Arutz-7 languished on its boat for three more years.

Now, instead of the first act of the government, Arutz-7's legalization is one of the last.  But at least it is done.  So what is the problem? 

Well it seems that Yossi Sarid, Haim Oron, and Eitan Cabel - three leftist members of Knesset from Meretz and Labour - cannot stomach the thought of Arutz-7 actually being allowed the same democratic rights as their precious elite.  Immediately following the 40-30 vote in favour of legalization, these three petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the legislation and keep Arutz-7 illegal.  They have support from leftist turncoat Elyakim Rubinstein - the Attorney General.

And here we have the crux of the matter.  Two weeks ago, half a million Jews gathered in Jerusalem to protest the "judicial activism" of Supreme Court President Aharon Barak.  Barak, it will be  remembered, took it upon himself to create legislation where none existed, and which destroyed the decades-old religious status quo in Israel. 

It is not within the realm of the Supreme Court, whose members are appointed by a committee and not elected by the public, to determine legislation in a democracy.  That is the duty of the Knesset, whose members are elected.  Where there is no legislation on a matter, the Supreme Court is empowered only to demand of the Knesset that legislation be put in place.  Where there is legislation, the Court is limited to interpreting the existing legislation as it pertains to specific cases brought before it for adjudication.  There is no constitution to use as a determining factor in these interpretations, so case law must be used instead. 

The Supreme Court repeatedly overstepped its bounds by demanding that Knesset legislation be adopted and that it favour one side over the other. Thus, the court effectively determined legislation where it had no power to do so.

Now, a test case is being brought to the court for its consideration. Sarid, Oron, and Cabel - the three sore losers of the elite in yesterday's vote - have petitioned the Court to overturn a piece of Knesset legislation that has no effect on the constitutional process of the country, and places no limits on any person's freedoms and rights.  In fact, this law expands those freedoms and rights, and applies them to a group of people whose rights had previously been curtailed.

But the leftist elite is being seriously challenged by this law, and so it must turn to the courts for salvation.  If Barak rules in favour of these three, then those protests of two weeks ago will be shown to have been legitimate and correct, and more such protests, of larger magnitude, will become necessary.  But if Barak rules to uphold the legislation, then he will show that he understood those protests, and that he heeds their message.

In many ways, then, yesterday's legislation heralds a new age for democracy in Israel, and it is to be applauded.  The faster it is implemented the better this entire country will be.

Copyright 1999.  Reproduction in print or electronic format by permission only.