Trump and Netanyahu have put their nations’ democracies in grave danger
There is an attack on the rule of law in America and in Israel, which, if not checked, might undermine democracy in both countries. Worse still, this assault is carried out by none other than the top respective leaders, precisely the ones who are supposed to be the staunchest guardians of this sacred value.
In the United States, Congress is pursuing an impeachment investigation against President Trump on his request that Ukraine launch a probe into a political rival. While this might look like a political move, in truth, it is a judicial one, since the Constitution appoints the House and Senate alone to deal with impeachment. If Congress concludes that the president has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors,” as the Constitution says, and the Senate tries the case and affirms, then the president can be removed from power.
This didn’t deter Trump from challenging the legitimacy of this longstanding concept. A letter from the White House to Jerold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, quoted in the June 3 Atlantic, challenged Congress’ right to investigate the president. Nadler responded that this argument would put Trump “above the law.” Demanding that the House stop its inquiry is “inconsistent with the most basic principles underlying our constitutional system of government,” he wrote (Forbes, May 19, 2019).
The situation in Israel is different: For the past three years, law-enforcement agencies have been investigating charges of corruption against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Last month, the attorney general finally indicted him on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Rule of law at its best, one might say, a strong pillar of our democracy. And never in the history of Israel has anyone dared challenge the legitimacy of this due process.
Never say never, though. When the Israeli police recommended that the attorney general press charges against Netanyahu, the prime minister attacked both institutions harshly, accusing them of carrying out a witch hunt. This prompted the otherwise reserved former Supreme Court Justice Eliyahu Matza to say to the Times of Israel that, “I don’t remember, in my entire career, statements like [Netanyahu’s] against law enforcement authorities by someone who wasn’t the head of a crime organization.”
Even worse was Netanyahu’s recent response to the attorney general’s announcement of his indictment. Not only did he appeal to his base “to investigate the investigators,” he also encouraged them to participate in a rally in Tel Aviv, in which one of the speakers called the attorney general and his deputy “the two heads of the snake.”
Alexis de Tocqueville, whose 19th-century book “Democracy in America” remains one of the most astute analyses of American society and politics, wrote: “Physical causes, laws, mores: These are without a doubt the three major factors that have governed and shaped American democracy, but if I were asked to rank them, I would say that physical causes matter less than laws and laws less than mores.”
By mores Tocqueville meant manners, norms and customs. He elaborated in a letter: “I am quite convinced that political societies are not what their laws make them, but what sentiments, beliefs, ideas, habits of the heart and the spirit of the men who form them, prepare them in advance to be, as well as what nature and education have made them.”
Good ol’ Tocqueville had it right. The beauty of democracy is that people obey the laws not only out of fear, but because they like doing so. The history and the traditions of democracy have taught them that the rule of law stabilizes an otherwise volatile society and allows liberty and human spirit to flourish. Undermining these traditions, or mores, as Tocqueville calls them, is dangerous, and might push fragile democracies down a slippery slope toward chaos.
I don’t know how Trump’s impeachment will evolve. I do know, however, that as long as Netanyahu continues to rail against the venerable tradition of the rule of law, instead of stepping down immediately and defending himself in court, like any other citizen, Israeli democracy is in danger.