editorials
I sraeli President Isaac Herzog spoke to the nation last
week. He addressed the increasingly contentious
judicial reform proposal before the Knesset that
some view as a fundamental threat to democracy in
the Jewish state. Herzog proposed a compromise
approach to the legislation.

And he warned ominously that civil war could lie
ahead if the heavy-handed reform eff ort continues
unabated. “He who thinks that a real civil war, one that
costs lives, is a line we won’t reach, is out of touch,” he
said. “In this moment, of all moments, in the 75th year
of the state of Israel, the abyss is within reach.”
For weeks, Israelis have turned out in mass
demonstrations to oppose the Netanyahu
government’s plan to make the judiciary subordinate to
the government. The legislation and the government’s
unbending pursuit of it has attracted the ire of reservists,
retired generals and former prime ministers. They say
the legislation will make Israel less democratic and rip
away legal protections for minorities. And, in making
their points, the protesters don’t hold back. They
accuse those promoting the hardline reform eff ort of
abuse of power and blame Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu for encouraging the eff ort: “Those who
are in favor of the state of Israel should be against
the prime minister of the state of Israel,” former Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert said.

Herzog’s compromise approach struck the right
chord. He acknowledged that structural changes to
Israeli President Isaac Herzog in 2022
Israel’s judicial system are necessary and “in the best
interest of the country,” but maintained that change
of this magnitude needs to be pursued logically and
through an orderly process rather than imposed by the
controlling faction of the Knesset.

Netanyahu wasn’t moved. He rejected Herzog’s
proposal, claiming that “central elements of the
proposal [Herzog] off ered just perpetuate the current
situation and don’t bring the necessary balance
between the branches.” Netanyahu’s slap down was
bemoaned by those seeking to navigate a consensus
resolution and celebrated by those supporting the
government’s bulldozer approach. We join those who
are disappointed.

The judicial reform proposals are important. Israel
does not have a formal, written constitution. It only has
one house of parliament in which laws are formulated.

Israel needs an independent judiciary that is not
controlled by a coalition majority to rule on legal issues.

That’s not to say the current system has no problems.

But it does support Herzog’s proposed engagement,
dialogue and compromise with respect to such a
fundamental issue of government structure and policy.

Israel’s president has limited power. The role is largely
ceremonial. But Israeli presidents have increasingly
used their position to address sensitive issues while
trying to unify the nation. That is the role Herzog is
trying to fi ll. And his eff ort should be embraced.

At a time when Israel is in turmoil with ever-growing
mass demonstrations, worried conferences between
Israeli leadership and Diaspora Jews, mounting
Palestinian unrest and allies and friends keeping their
distance, we are concerned that Netanyahu seems
isolated and out of step. And we see a disturbing
thematic similarity between Netanyahu and the
hard-hearted Pharaoh of Egypt in the Exodus story.

That leader rejected compromise and lost it all. ■
Struggling with Long COVID
T hree years ago, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) developed
fl u-like symptoms. It turned out to be COVID. He
never got very sick, and his symptoms eventually went
away. Except one. “I noticed one day that my nerve
endings turned on like a light switch was fl ipped and
all of them started to tingle like my skin had been
dipped in an Alka-Seltzer,” Kaine said last week. “24/7,
every nerve ending in my body. It has not gone away
in 3 years.”
For most, the pandemic seems like a bad dream
as it falls to the back of our day-to-day concerns.

But the coronavirus isn’t through with us yet. People
are still getting sick, especially those burdened
with long COVID.

Although there is no clinical defi nition of long COVID,
the Centers for Disease Control describes it as a wide
range of new, returning or ongoing health problems
people can experience four or more weeks after fi rst
being infected with SARS-CoV-2.

That’s a pretty large — and vague — basket to
drop a disease into. That’s because long COVID
12 MARCH 23, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
manifests itself in a variety of ways. Symptoms can
include extreme fatigue, trouble concentrating,
memory problems, heart problems, organ damage,
a persistent cough, diffi culty breathing or, like Kaine,
a nerve-end buzzing that doesn’t go away. One of
the problems with long COVID is that we don’t know
enough about it.

Last week, Kaine, along with Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.)
and other legislators, introduced a bill calling for the
Department of Health and Human Services to compile
and study data on long COVID patients, including the
eff ectiveness of treatments. The bill also seeks to
have DHS conduct COVID-related education programs
throughout the country. The Comprehensive Access to
Resources and Education For Long COVID Act has a
price tag of $475 million. A similar bill introduced last
year languished in committee and was not brought to
a vote.

That shouldn’t be allowed to happen this year.

We call on Congress to promote research into long
COVID and support for those who suff er from it.

Medical science needs more information on how
long COVID spreads, its symptoms and how to
treat it. It needs a better understanding of who is
most vulnerable to which symptoms, how long the
illness lasts, and why the diff erent variants aff ect
patients diff erently. A soon-to-be-published study
found that people infected with the Omicron variant
are less likely to develop long COVID after being
vaccinated than those who had COVID-19 before the
emergence of Omicron. Finding out why is a key task
for researchers.

DHS expects the COVID emergency to end in May.

But that doesn’t mean that COVID will disappear or
that long COVID won’t persist. Unfortunately, both
will remain. And the need for research and treatment
will continue. The elderly, people with preexisting
conditions, the poor and people of color continue to
bear the brunt of the pandemic. Their vulnerabilities
should not be forgotten. The CARE For Long COVID
Act will help. We encourage strong consideration and
passage of the legislation. ■
WIkicommons photo by Amos Ben Gershom
Compromise and Rejection



opinions & letters
Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Review
Rabbi Shai Cherry
T he judicial reforms being ramrodded through
the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, have
galvanized Israelis as well as those outside
the country who are committed to Israel’s peace and
prosperity. Up to half a million Israeli protesters, in a country of
fewer than 10 million people, have gathered weekly
since this legislative coup breached the Knesset.

The protesters are determined, as are their allies, to
thwart the judicial reforms initiated by a coalition of
the illiberal, the criminal and the religiously fanatic.

These judicial reforms would sabotage Israel’s
democracy. Illiberalism, according to Professor Marlene
Laruelle of George Washington University, “is a
strain of political culture, a set of institutional reforms
(such as assaults on an independent judiciary) and
broader societal processes (such as declining trust
in liberal democratic institutions) that, over the past
two decades, has emerged in response to liberalism.

… Adherents of illiberalism argue that, in the face of a
liberalism that has ‘gone too far,’ it is time to reassert
the rights of the collective, or of an alleged silent
majority, by … preferring a strong leader with large
powers over a parliamentary system … [and by] refus-
ing multiculturalism and minority rights. …”
Israel’s assault on the judiciary is led by a prime
minister who is standing trial for corruption. One of
the judicial “reforms” would allow the government to
reinstate Aryeh Deri, previously convicted of bribery,
fraud and breach of trust, to his previous position as
a minister. Another “reform” would essentially elimi-
nate judicial review, potentially shielding the prime
minister from future criminal convictions.

In the United States, the principle of judicial review
— the ability of the judicial branch to pronounce on
the constitutionality of any particular piece of legisla-
tion — was established by the 1803 decision Marbury
vs. Madison.

As Israel approaches its 75th anniversary, she
still has no constitution. Nevertheless, Israel does
have a Declaration of Independence guaranteeing
“complete equality of social and political rights to all
Israel’s inhabitants.”
Who guards those rights if not the judiciary?
Our Founding Fathers foresaw the dangers of the
tyranny of the majority. “[A majority may] sacrifice to
its ruling passion or interest both the public good
and the rights of other citizens” (James Madison,
Federalist Paper #10). Alexander Hamilton proffered
the solution: “[It is the duty of the courts] to declare all
acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution
void” (Federalist Paper #78).

In other words, judicial review.

The mere existence of Israel’s Constitution, Law
and Justice Committee speaks to the unfinished
imperfection of Israel’s system of governance. But
the proposal for judicial reform would exacerbate
those imperfections by neutering the power of the
courts to declare laws void that violate individual
rights. Members of the governing coalition have
made no secret of their desire to deny rights both to
non-Jewish Israelis and non-Orthodox Jews.

As an American, I oppose this version of judicial
reforms because it tilts Israel from democracy toward
authoritarianism. Thomas Nides, the American
ambassador to Israel, echoed Israel’s president
in calling for a suspension of the legislative blitz
to negotiate a compromise that better reflects a
broader base of the Israeli electorate. Amichai Chikli,
Israel’s inaugural Minister of Diaspora Affairs, told
him to “mind his own business.”
Telling the ambassador of the country that provides
$3 billion a year in aid to Israel to “mind his own
business,” calls into question more than Chikli’s
diplomatic bona fides.

As a rabbi, this version of judicial reform is a
betrayal of the most sacred tenets of Judaism. Well
before our own Declaration of Independence in
the age of the Enlightenment, the Book of Genesis
announced the radical, countercultural claim that all
people were created in the divine image. Everyone
possesses inherent dignity.

The Torah’s laws are geared toward protecting that
dignity through the pursuit of justice. Alas, the Israeli
government is pursuing unchecked power to deny
others the dignity of their humanity.

To paraphrase David Ben-Gurion, American Jews
must fight these judicial reforms as if there were no
terrorists, antisemites or anti-Zionists. And we must
fight the terrorists, antisemites and anti-Zionists as if
there were no judicial reforms. ■
Shai Cherry is the rabbi at Congregation Adath
Jeshurun in Elkins Park.

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letters Enforcing the Taylor Force Act
I applaud the enforcement of the Taylor Force Act
(“Progeny of the Taylor Force Act,” March 16). The
Palestinian Authority should be penalized for under-
writing acts of Palestinian terror.

The Pindrus Act, sponsored by a minister of the
far-right United Torah Judaism Party, would allow
Israeli victims of Palestinian terror to sue the PA for
compensatory damages. The PA, however, is no
longer the law enforcement agency in the West Bank.

That responsibility now falls to the IDF, which is, after
all, now responsible for the safety of all residents of
the West Bank, including Palestinians.

In fact, the IDF was responsible for protecting the
murdered residents of Hawara and preventing the
destruction of property and the injuries that resulted
from the settler pogrom.

Victims of any terror, perpetrated by Jews or
Palestinians living in the West Bank should be
equally compensated after judicial review by the
Israeli Supreme Court, which has jurisdiction over
such matters.

Stuart Fredd, Ambler
Defining Reality
The attack on Huwara by observant Jews fed up
with being victims of stabbings and shootings, of
thrown rocks and other projectiles aimed at their
cars, of bombs set off indiscriminately, of family
massacres — thankfully, this is not the Orthodox
Judaism that Aviad Houminer-Rosenblum grew up on
(The Settlers’ Attack on Huwara Is Not the Orthodox
Judaism I Grew Up On,” March 9).

But that is the reality for these Jews. Perhaps they
are sick and tired of being on the receiving end and
decided to play by Arab rules for a change. If the
destruction of Huwara sends a message to the next
Palestinian terrorist, what’s the problem? Must Jews
always play the victim?
As for the author’s irresponsible statement that
Jewish outposts abuse the Palestinians daily, it is just
that — an irresponsible statement. Perhaps he thinks
that Jews should return to the ‘67 boundaries or,
even better, the ‘48 lines. I support the right of these
Jews to live anywhere in Eretz Israel. They are true
Zionists, and that’s Orthodox Judaism. ■
Zachary Margolies, Philadelphia
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