Is it possible that a civil war is being waged in the Knesset, beneath the national flag? The very thought is horrifying. Civil war is a terrible event that afflicts nations, causes so many casualties and leaves deep scars. A war doesn't have to entail lethal weapons – it can be waged using PR, for example.
The war of words is an Israeli invention, rolled out in the Knesset, where the entire litany of curses are employed. Knesset members are removed from the plenum and sanctioned by the Ethics Committee, which suspends the upstarts or docks their salaries. On the whole, MKs have a legal right to say whatever they think. Not everyone sticks to that; some want to undermine the foundation of the state whose citizens elected them.
Do MKs restrict themselves to parliamentary activity, which has almost no boundaries? It seems that the tools at their disposal are insufficient. They don't limit themselves to passing legislation or making crude speeches against the government. They petition the High Court of Justice to rescue them from votes they lose, being part of the opposition. We are talking about a specific group of MKs from the Joint Arab List. They aren't satisfied with a parliamentary struggle within Israel; they wage war against the country both at home and abroad.
That same minority in the Joint Arab List is working to attack the state. By the way, they weigh the sensitivity of many of their provocative remarks. It's a tug-of-war between them and the Israeli majority. Woe betide us if the rope snaps. They have already tried a number of tactics: appealing to the U.N. for a condemnation of a government move; asking the European Union to publicly express disapproval of Israel. They asked the European leadership to supply them with funds to continue their battle against the nation-state law. That request produced a great surprise when E.U. Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini disappointed the delegation of Arab MKs and told them that the nation-state law was an internal Israeli matter. They are still taking other actions, including supporting the BDS movement's boycott of Israeli products.
That is typical of a civil war – citizens, in this case citizens who sit in parliament – are fighting against the country, and asking international organizations to attack it. A few days ago, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton condemned the International Criminal Court in The Hague, promising that that the U.S. would stand by any of its allies that were prosecuted by the court. Certain Arab MKs are using international entities against us, which is utterly absurd.
Recently, MK Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu) took a step to make it possible to oust Knesset members who support terrorism. I thought at the time that if such a measure were implemented, it might make the ex-MKs into heroes in the eyes of their supporters. But in this civil war, as it is currently being fought, MKs are plotting international ambushes as a way of taking aim at the country. And that's not all: They aren't satisfied with petitioning the High Court – which in and of itself blurs the separation of powers – they have set their sights beyond Israel's borders. If they, as a minority within the opposition, lose votes in the Knesset, they turn to Brussels, which they see as the ultimate arbitrator.
Parliamentary immunity gives them widespread protection to excoriate Israeli policies. But where should they be working to change the nation-state law, for example? In the European Parliament, or in the Knesset? If we lose the tug-of-war, Israeli society will collapse.
