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First-ever vote on redeployment mulled
DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Referendum fever swept Israel this week as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blew hot, then cold, then hot again over the idea of holding a national plebiscite on the next Israeli redeployment from the West Bank.
As legal experts debated precedents for the idea and technological wizards proposed state-of-the-art methods for conducting such a referendum, some Israelis wondered why the premier would want to go ahead with a procedure that has never before been employed in Israel. The very notion of turning to public opinion to decide a major policy issue - in an apparent attempt to circumvent opponents in the Cabinet and the Knesset - raised concerns among some Israelis already uneasy about developments that are seen as weakening the country's democratic institutions.
Just the same, the referendum idea, not yet crystallized, quickly prompted sharp criticism from Palestinian officials - who derided it as a delaying tactic - and even ridicule from Netanyahu's own defense minister. "I don't know what a national referendum is, how it is done, over what period of time, what it costs, what is needed," Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai told reporters in the Knesset. "The main thing is to keep the momentum and progress going in the process with the Palestinians."
In fact, Netanyahu first dismissed as "a joke" hard-line Gesher Knesset member Michael Kleiner's idea that the whole country be asked for its opinion of the proposed redeployment. But he quickly seems to have taken a liking to the notion.
On June 22, a panel of ministers and legal aides convened, on Netanyahu's orders, to consider the practicalities of holding a referendum. Justice Minister Tzachi Hanegbi announced that he would recommend holding a non-binding referendum that could be organized in about two months. "The government cannot ignore its results," he said.
The next day, Netanyahu said canvassing the nation's views on the proposed pullback was "no joke." But he did not explicitly commit himself to holding a referendum.
Israel has been under pressure for months to carry out a 13 percent further redeployment in the West Bank as part of an American compromise proposal aimed at breaking a 16-month deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The Palestinians have accepted the plan, which also would require them to step up security measures to counter terrorism. But Netanyahu faces staunch opposition from far-right members of his coalition who have threatened to bring down the government if any more land is transferred to Palestinian control.
Since recent opinion polls are united in showing strong support for the pullback, political pundits see the referendum idea as a possible way of advancing the peace process. Netanyahu, the pundits reason, may hope to implement the redeployment if his right-wing partners can cite the "cover" of a referendum to remain in the coalition. But legal experts question the wisdom of going over the heads of the country's elected officials.
David Libai, a former Labor justice minister, said there was no government in the world that would summon the entire country as advisers on a policy issue. He added that referendum proponents would be hard-pressed to find the support in the Knesset needed to pass legislation to hold such a poll.
The referendum proposal is the latest in what some Israelis see as troubling developments affecting the country's central institutions - the government, the Knesset, the prime minister, the president and the Supreme Court.
Critics say the prime minister, now directly elected by the people under Israel's new election law, has chosen to conduct policy, at home and abroad, with scant reference to his Cabinet. Ministers complain incessantly that they are kept in the dark.
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