Note: Do read my previous two articles: (1) Netanyahu is Prime Minister of Israel When Rapture Occurs, and (2) UPDATE: Netanyahu is Prime Minister of Israel When Rapture Occurs
Benjamin Netanyahu is currently leading the most extreme right-wing coalition government in Israeli history. His Likud Party is allied with five Orthodox and Conservative parties, namely:
i) Religious Zionism (far-right): Its leader is Bezalel Smotrich
ii) Otzma Yehudit (far-right): Leader Itamar Ben-Gvir
iii) Noam (far-right): Its leader is Avi Maoz
iv) Shas (ultra-Orthodox): Leader is Aryeh Deri
v) United Torah Judaism (ultra-Orthodox): Its leader is Yitzhak Goldknopf
The ruling coalition holds 64 seats against the opposition 56 seats in the 120-seats Knesset (Parliament).
Key Issues
The Netanyahu’s government is proposing judicial reforms which seek to:
a) Reduce the power of the Supreme Court that currently has the authority to review all legislation, government orders, and administrative actions of state bodies. Over the past 30 years, the Supreme Court’s power has grown, and since then has canceled 22 Knesset-created laws it determines to be in violation of Israel's Basic Laws. [The Basic Laws function as the country’s quasi-constitution as Israel has no written constitution. The first Knesset in the days of David Ben-Gurion’s early government was supposed to enact one but religious elements objected on account of the Torah’s status in their eyes as the existing constitution.]
The proposal is to allow the Knesset to reject the interpretation given by the Supreme Court to a Basic Law and to override a Supreme Court decision nullifying a law.
b) Have greater say over the appointment of judges, including in the Supreme Court, by increasing its representation in the Judiciary Selection Panel which appoints those judges. Rather than its current makeup of three judges, two representatives of the Israel Bar Association and four politicians, the new Panel will remove the IBA representation, and gives six seats to politicians, that is, three seats each to the cabinet ministers and members of the Knesset.
c) Do away with the requirement for cabinet ministers to obey the advice of their legal advisers - guided by the Attorney General - which they presently have to do by law.
Opposition
The push for judicial overhaul has generated widespread vehement opposition from top judicial, security, economic and public figures, warnings from allies such as the US, and threats by thousands of military reservists to quit volunteer service. Since January of this year, there has been weekly street protest by the thousands.
The protesters are voicing their anger and fear that the judicial overhaul will remove check and balance among the three branches of the government: the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary which could destroy the rule of law and the democratic system in Israel. They also accuse Netanyahu, who is on trial for three corruption charges, of trying to use the overhaul to quash possible judgments against him.
Theocracy vs. Democracy
To all outward appearances, the on-going crisis is a contestation between those who view the propose changes to the judiciary as an effort to balance the power between politicians and the judges; while those who oppose insists the judiciary presently exercises its power adequately for the purpose of check and balance.
However, a deeper look into the crisis reveals that the Orthodox (Haredi Communities) and the Far-Right (Conservatives) segments of the Israeli society desire greater adoption of religious laws which will inevitably grant greater authority to the Rabbinical Courts in managing the affairs of the nation. The Rabbinical Courts are part of the Israeli judiciary, but presently they mainly handle issues relating to divorce, property, visitation rights of children, wills and inheritances, approval of Jewish status and conversion.
Although the current government’s push to overhaul the judiciary system faces wide-spread and very strong opposition, in the end Netanyahu’s government will stand their ground and win. Why is this outcome certain?
Building the Third Temple
Netanyahu’s government is the right government to take-on the task of building the Third Temple on the Temple Mount. After the Rapture of the Gentile Church has taken place, the Third Temple will be built (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4). It is obvious that the opposition will not be interested in this project of building the Third Temple since they hold liberal worldview and are interested only in holding-on tightly to the democratic system of law. In contrast, the management of the Third Temple, when it is built, requires the adoption of religious laws base on the Torah and the Talmud, and the official adoption of the Sanhedrin as the Supreme Court in Israel.
Winds of change have begun to blow across the earth. Earth shaking changes are about to occur in many places; and one of these changes is the replacement of the current democratic state of Israel with one that is rule by the Torah. In a nut shell, Israel is in a cusp of becoming a Halakha State.
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