Israels anti-Israel former chief justice

Former Israeli chief Justice speaks his mind



Famed jurist and former chief justice of the Israeli supreme court has said some eye opening things at a lecture in Tel-Aviv. Aharon Barak who retired from the bench a few years ago tells us a little bit about his politics and world philosophy.

The most startling thing that he mentions is his full support for the concept of a country of all its citizens. This means simply that for all intensive purposes he wants to do away mostly with the concept of a Jewish state (he says he still supports the law of return) and have a state that defines itself by its citizens and not by its Jewish character. This very extreme view was made famous by a former Knesset member who has run away from Israel for fear of prosecution for treason. His name is Azmi Bashara and he lives in Damascus while still receiving a pension from the Knesset ( that’s the Israeli parliament ). This view is particularly disturbing when one considers that this man was supposed to be neutral and fair while sitting at the highest point of the Israeli judicial system. As many suspected his extreme left leaning politics manifested itself in his many legal decisions that are still shaping the Israeli judicial system. There is no man who had more clout and leverage on Israeli life than Mr. Barak had in the last 20 years as many decisions of the Israeli parliament were struck down by this man. Adding to all this is the latest demand of the Israeli prime minister that Arab countries and especially the Palestinian authority recognize Israel as a Jewish state. They could rightfully claim that the former Supreme Court head thinks that the country should have a very limited Jewish character we will not disagree with him.

Those who opposed Mr. Barak over the years are not completely surprised at these statements. Many fear that his successor and others on the high court bench have similar political leanings.

This is one of Israel’s main problems.