(Continued from p.6)
political reform will have as much effect as Eidelberg believes. Constituency elections give politicians an independent base, but they can also encourage a local and venal politics. For a long time, Rabin's majority in the Knesset rested on the vote of one man, Alex Goldfarb, elected on the basis of an opposing platform. He was widely derided as selling his vote for a Mitsubishi, the government car in which he rode around as a minister. A Prime Minister in need of a few swing votes may well find it easier to "buy," as needed, the vote of a few constituency-based politicians with goodies for their districts that will enhance their prospects for reelection. There is wisdom in the old observation that
a people gets the government it deserves.
Professor Eidelberg assumes Jewish public opinion was
betrayed both by Oslo and by Netanyahu. But euphoria swept
Israel when Rabin first promised "peace now" through
the Oslo accords. And prior to the last
elections, Netanyahu changed his all-out opposition to Oslo to the
promise of "peace and security" through a more
toughly-negotiated Oslo, precisely because he felt he could
not obtain a majority if he repudiated Oslo as the
mortal menace to the state's survival he full well knew it to be.
In the end, then as now, as Eidelberg (quoting Aristotle) agrees, Israel's fate depends upon the wisdom and courage of her leaders. Increasingly, Israel is cursed with her leaders. But that may have less to do with how they are selected than with the public's loss of energy and faith, its will to believe in the unbelievable. Israel's appalling leaders manipulate the public's weakness in order to maintain their power regardless of long term consequences. Can constituency elections change that? Reducing the number of parties? Even eliminating the Israeli Arab vote (unlikely as that is)? It would be comforting to think so.
Congressman Jim Saxton
(These remarks were delivered by Rep. Saxton, chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, before the House of Representatives on August 7, 1998)
Mr. Speaker, I would like to convey my personal sympathies and to say that our heart goes out to the families of the Americans who were apparently killed earlier this morning in eastern Africa, yet another two terrorist attacks against Americans overseas; and to say that, apparently, there was a third one planned, which for some reason did not materialize, also in the eastern part of Africa.
To say that once again, that as bad as we feel when these types of events happen and as much as we wish that we did not have to deal with them, the fact is that we do have to deal with these instances.
As the chairman of a group of Republicans, I am joined here today by the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) who is also a member of the group of Republicans [known as] the Task Force on Terrorism and U.N. Conventional Warfare.
We have studied these types of activities.
We have studied the causes of them and we have,
sadly, become too aware that our government as an institution
is either unable or unwilling to put in place policies
to deal with them. I would like to think that we have
been unwilling rather than unable.
Let me just recite one example of the kind of thing that leads me to that conclusion. In 1996, we passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of that year. Among other things, it provided that victims of terrorism and their families could sue states that sponsor terrorism.
In the case of one individual who was killed, it happened to be in the West Bank, a young lady by the
We had to fight against the State Department to pass an amendment to enable the Flatow family to sue Iran.
Pursuant to the act that we passed in 1996, her family had the right to sue in American courts to recover damages which they did, and they were granted a judgment by the judge in U.S. District Court here in Washington, D.C., a judgment for $247 million against the State of Iran which, through various accounts, had transferred monies to the Islamic Jihad who carried out this attack.
Here on the floor this week, and two weeks ago, members of the Task Force on Terrorism had to fight against the State Department to pass another amendment to another law to enable the Flatow family to
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September 1998 - 7 - Outpost