Democracy anyone?

I was surprised to see in my first few weeks in Israel that Israelis don't enjoy lively debate as falsely advertised. Rather, they hold in contempt anybody who isn't in complete agreement with their shitas. This applies in particular to politics. The moment you disagree about anything, you are out. You don't exist. You are the enemy.

And so we learn as well that Israel doesn't actually have a democracy. You don't vote for a candidate here. You vote for a party that chooses who takes office. The party must cross a minimum electoral threshold that is currently set at 3.25%. Thus, new parties cannot get started. Not only that, when they try, their fundraising platforms are shut down.

Sometimes old parties get new names but run by the same people. So in Israel, it's the same players decade after decade. In this generation it's Bennett, Lapid, Liberman, and of course Netanyahu. In the prior one it was Begin, Peres, Rabin, and Netanyahu.

Israel does not have checks and balances. The executive and legislative branches are the same. There is a court, but it is self-appointed and doesn't work according to precedent or constitutional rule. It does what it deems reasonable, and since it is liberal, it stays liberal as it appoints itself. A war between Knesset and Court is not a balance. It's dysfunction. In addition, none of them protect minority rights so Haredim and Arabs are in a bad position.

As for freedom of press and protest, that is minimal here. It is against the law to protest against the formation of the state. You can't march on Yom Hatzmut. Police will beat you for that. You can't post a Palestinian flag. You can't deface an Israeli flag. 

In America, you can burn the flag. I'm not saying that you should, but the protection of free speech in America is a long standing tradition. It allows for open discussion, which as we see doesn't take place in Israel. Don't confuse people shouting with debate. Watch the 'debates' in the knesset. These aren't actually debates. They are shouting matches. MKs don't work together. They brawl. 

In Israel you cannot even protest the war. Police will arrest you if you wear a t-shirt that says "Stop the War." You are not allowed to post photos of destruction from Iranian bombs. You are not allowed to post photos of starving children in Gaza. That's all viewed as attacks on Israel and it's soldiers. 

Many professors have been arrested for questioning Israeli military activity. 

American aliyah evangelists should know better than to describe Israel as a democracy, but they are delusional people. And they are egomaniacs. They assume anything Jews are involved in must be superior, but they don't look at the facts. Israel is a grade D democracy at best. 

It's the same with medical care. When an American who knows American medical care tells you to move to Israel you take for granted that he's giving his approval of the medical care here. And even if you don't assume, he'll tell you that it is superior. In reality, it is far inferior. Why does he deem it acceptable to lie? I'm not sure. Maybe in his crazy head he imagines it to be true simply based on some kind of misunderstanding of what is good about the Jewish people. What is good is our religion. We are not necessarily better in anything else. In fact, in goshmiistic matters, we are not nearly as good. But Zionists are materialists. They materialize religion, so it shouldn't be surprising that they get this all wrong.