Chronicle poll results: Israel’s democracy
We asked our readers if they are concerned with the preservation of Israel's democracy. Here's what they said.
Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Are you concerned with the preservation of Israel’s democracy?” Of the 312 people who responded, 80% said, “Yes, very much so”; 10% said, “Yes, somewhat”; 9% said “No”; and 1% said they didn’t know or had no opinion. Comments were submitted by 66 people. A few follow.
This is a precarious moment, never before experienced in Israel. Without the checks and balances of the judiciary on the power of the government, the road to preserving democracy is unclear.
The only concern I have is the opposition’s attempt to secure by mob rule what they could not achieve at the ballot box.
The current state of Israel is enough to make one weep. We do not need to wait for external enemies to destroy us — we are effectively doing it for them internally.
It hasn’t been a democracy for Palestinians for a very long time. Now everyone else will also know what it’s like to have no recourse for injustice.
I always thought of Israel as a place that I could go if the situation here — i.e., antisemitism — continues to get worse. Israel is clearly heading from a democracy to a theocracy. That scares the daylights out of me.
So few of us understand the issues involved. Many of the protestors have a peripheral understanding of why the right wants to weaken the court, and whether some of their proposals will change Israel’s democracy, weaken it, or do serious permanent damage to it.
It is despicable that a Jewish country built on the ashes of the Holocaust could allow democracy to
be destroyed against its citizens’ wishes.
it was a fair and free election….
Hundreds of thousands of protectors must have a valid objection.
As an American citizen, while I love my “homeland,” I have no right to impose my opinions.
I hope it’s not too late.
Netanyahu is a very corrupt politician and it does not speak well for Israel that this one individual can alter the government to save his own skin. Israel would do well to have a constitution.
I think there’s somewhat of an overreaction happening. When the pendulum swings in the other direction, right-wing Israelis will be protesting. There’s no way to make everyone happy.
It is stunning and depressing to witness the Jewish state tumble toward fascism. Has nothing been learned from 20th-century history?
The contradiction between being a Jewish state and being a democratic state is coming to a head. PJC
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