Dr. Aaron Lerner – IMRA
“The Nation-State Law, first of all, entrenches the Law of Return. It raises
it to another level and this law, of course, grants an automatic right to
Jews, and only to them, to come here and receive citizenship. ”
PM Netanyahu

Dear Reader: That’s what’s really on the line.

And our Supreme Court is to blame for creating such uncertainty that this
action was required.

Today “only” the Israeli Arabs and elements in the radical Jewish Left
maintain that the Law of Return constitutes a violation of the principle of
equal rights.

But our Supreme Court has taken such liberty in its interpretation of our
existing Basic Laws that there’s no way to predict just how far their pilpul
will take us in the future.

The recently enacted Nation-State Law goes a very long way towards making it
impossible for the Supreme Court to void the Law of Return in the future.

I don’t think for a minute that this is why our Druze brothers are
frustrated by the law.

Frankly speaking I hope that their reaction brings about long needed action
for the benefit of the Druze.

But setting aside the reaction of part of the Druze community, when you peel
away the talking heads that would pick up basically anything in a news cycle
that they think can hurt PM Netanyahu you are left with a core of opponents
who are well aware that we are actually talking about the Law of Return.

All the reporters have to do is ask the direct question: “do you believe
that the Law of Return violates the principle of equal rights?”

But they don’t ask.

Just like almost all Israeli reporters covering efforts to return Gaza to
“quiet for quiet” don’t appreciate that the key feature of “quiet for quiet”
is that it allows Hamas and the others in the Gaza Strip to do literally
anything and everything in preparation to attack Israel.
======
PM Netanyahu’s Remarks at the Start of the Weekly Cabinet Meeting, 5 August
(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this morning (Sunday, 5 August 2018), at
the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, made the following remarks:

“Deputy Cabinet Secretary Gabi Golan, you are opening the Cabinet meeting
and not Cabinet Secretary Tzachi Braverman because he is in the week of
mourning for his mother and all of us here send him and his family our
condolences.

The State of Israel is the national state of the Jewish people. Israel is a
Jewish and democratic state. Individual rights are anchored in many laws
including Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.

Nobody has harmed – and nobody intends to harm – these individual rights but
without the Nation-State Law it will be impossible to ensure for [future]
generations the future of Israel as a Jewish national state.

The Nation-State Law, first of all, entrenches the Law of Return. It raises
it to another level and this law, of course, grants an automatic right to
Jews, and only to them, to come here and receive citizenship. The
Nation-State Law, for example, prevents the exploitation of the family
reunification clause under which very, very many Palestinians have been
absorbed into the country since the Oslo agreement, and this law helps
prevent the continued uncontrolled entry into Israel of Palestinians. It
could be that this law will also be able to assist us in blocking the future
entry of labor migrants.

These and other things are happening because the laws of the state anchored
in basic laws only individual rights without any constitutional balance
vis-à-vis our national component; therefore, we legislated the Nation-State
Law in order to ensure the existence of the State of Israel as a state that
is not only democratic but as the national state of the Jewish people and of
it alone. This is necessary not only for our generation but for the coming
generations.

The deep bond between the Druze community and our commitment to it are also
essential; therefore, today we will establish a special ministerial
committee to advance this bond and this commitment and at the same time will
appreciate those of all religions and all ethnic communities who serve in
the IDF and the security forces.

Over the weekend we received important news. The credit rating company
Standard & Poor’s raised Israel’s rating to AA, which positions Israel among
the strongest economies in the world. This joins, of course, the
confirmation of Israel’s credit rating by Moody’s several weeks ago.

This attests to the responsible economic policy that we in the government
have been conducting – the Finance Minister and fellow ministers. This
policy has led to continuous growth in the Israeli economy. As I read some
of the analysts who say ‘Continuous growth, but it has not improved the lot
of the weak’ – this is simply incorrect. Year after year we see a decline in
the disparity index, which is improving step by step, because we are
combining, first of all, a free market policy with entry into the labor
force, and as soon as people enter the labor force their situation improves.
And indeed, the policy here is correct both economically and socially, and
we will continue on these two axes on behalf of the citizens of Israel.”

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR