Poli Sci 101 With a Touch of Theology
Prof. Paul Eidelberg
Uncorrupted common sense teaches us what Aristotle taught some 2,400 years ago, namely, that the factual relationship between rulers and ruled is decisive for determining the character of a regime. This teaching bears the caveat that the de facto relationship between rulers and ruled may be very different from the de jure relationship.
For example, a country may have universal suffrage and yet, far from being a democracy, it may in fact be an oligarchy in which the Few, by means of wealth, or by dominating the media, or even by exploiting the country’s electoral rules, can manipulate the government and thus shape the policies of the regime.
Having studied the electoral rules of more than 80 countries classified as democracies by Freedom House in New York—a boring and thankless enterprise—I have drawn the following conclusion. The parliamentary electoral rules prevailing in Israel, where the entire country constitutes a single electoral district in which some thirty parties compete for seats in the Knesset by Proportional Representation with a low electoral threshold—these mundane rules, allow me to say, entitle this fabulous and flourishing country to a Guinness Prize, a prize for having survived under the most irrational form of government on planet earth, where the Executive branch, in war as well as in peace, consists of five or six or more rival political parties competing with each other for a larger share of the public treasury. (Kindly reread this awkward but fitting run-on sentence.)
I hasten to add, however, that Israel’s survival during the past sixty-three years in the Islamic sea of the Middle East, where Muslim Arab leaders intone the mantra "we love death," is miraculous, indeed, may deemed the political proof of God’s existence—the existence of the God of Israel!
This touch of theology may offend skeptics, but show me a parallel to this phenomenon in human history. Consider. When Jews in Israel sing "ahm Yisrael chai"—"the people of Israel live"—some say this in thankfulness but also in sheer wonderment. Hence, all honor to the founders of Israel's Third Commonwealth. I do not disparage their wisdom. But if, contrary to their reputation, it was their deliberate intention to prove the existence of the God of Israel by political means—well, ladies and gentlemen, they have succeeded, and thus stand head and shoulders above philosophers who have offered cosmological and ontological and other sophisticated proofs of the existence a Supreme Being! Congratulations—the drinks are on me!
Want more proof of God’s toying with his peopleis hi? Notice that regardless of which political party in Israel has controlled the government since the Oslo Agreement of September 1993, all have been fixated on the policy of "land for peace"—a policy whose irrationality transcends human stupidity.
Two decades of this mindless and mundane policy and its thousands of Jewish casualties are indicative not only of the idiocy of Israel’s ruling elites—you may add their timidity—but also of the futility of democratic elections based on Israel’s fantastic electoral rules. This futility can be correlated with the demonstrable fact that public opinion in this country has ever been to the right of its Government, but let’s say since the June 1992 election.
That election produced the socialist Labor-led government that violated its solemn pledge to the nation not to retreat from Judea and Samaria, a pledge echoed and violated by the capitalist-oriented Likud-led government after the February 2003 election. This demonstrates that democratic elections in Israel constitute a colossal fraud, certainly on the issue of Israel’s borders, which affects her very survival. These elections do not change the direction of the government or relationship between the rulers and the ruled—not on the existential issues of the regime.
Of course, skeptics will explain this away by referring to Israel’s alleged dependence on the United States. However, as ambassador Yoram Ettinger (ret.) has shown, this dependency is very much a myth. Mr. Ettinger was Israel’s liaison with the U.S. Congress. He is well-versed on the economic relations between the two countries. When all is said and done, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that, dollar-for-dollar, the U.S. receives more from Israel than vice versa—especially when one factors into the equation American dependence on Israel in the eastern Mediterranean. In short, Israel is America’s best bargain.
And I have said nothing of what Israel has lost in blood and treasure adhering to the theologically ignorant policy of "land for peace." Did I say "theological"—this, from a political scientist who studied under the incomparable Leo Strauss? But look here: I’ve been living in Israel and have studied the pronouncements and policies of its politicians for thirty-five years, and I have yet to discover among them a scrap of real wisdom (in contradistinction to mere cleverness). Even the most intelligent are bound in catholic wedlock to a transparently decrepit system of government they boast of as a democracy, on the one hand, while genuflecting to the idol of peace with bellicose Muslim Arabs on the other.
So it seems to me that a theological drama is being played out in the Land of Israel. In this mysterious land, where the idea of ethical monotheism was born, Jewish politicians, having eyes, are doubly blind, and having ears, are doubly deaf, for they worship the vanities of normless democracy and grovel at the feet of democracy’s most ruthless enemies.
Ponder, therefore, the theologically inspired words of the prophet Ezekiel: "That which comes into your mind shall not be at all; in that you say, 'We shall be as the nations ...'"
Does this mean that politics in the Holy Land is unwittingly advancing a theological drama, a drama leading to Israel’s final redemption, when, as the prophet Zechariah said: "Ten men of every nationality, speaking different languages, shall take hold of every Jew by the corner of his garment and say, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you'"?
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