One man’s liberalism is another man’s conservativism
How ironic. What some consider to be an assault on democracy in one country and one context consider it to be a bedrock of democracy in another country and another context.
It is said: It is an assault on democracy for any Texas citizen to sue one who abets an abortion. Any Texan who has no standing in a particular, potential abortion can mix in, step in and activate the Texas legal system against the abettor of the abortion.
That is considered illiberal in the extreme.
It is said: A nearly parallel power is not considered an assault on democracy. Any Palestinian who has no standing in various Israeli policies can mix in, step in and activate the Israeli legal system against the Israel policy.
The idea that abortion is a social and moral concern, and therefore any Texan has a right to step in, is considered wrong.
The idea that Israeli policy toward Palestinians is a social and moral concern, and therefore any Palestinian has right to step in, is considered right.
Liberals who praise the Israeli system would, for consistency’s sake, need to praise the prosecutorial mechanism built into the Texas law.
The law in Israel is that any Palestinian can sue in an Israeli court regarding any IDF non-combat action.
This law, which is extended even to Palestinians not directly affected by a given Israel action, has the effect of highlighting putatively harmful Israeli policies against Palestinians. A Palestinian, not even a citizen of Israel, can come even before Israel’s highest court, and file a case.
The new Texas abortion law gives any Texan the right to sue a putative violator of the next abortion law, which bans all abortions after six weeks.
In our view, this new right in Texas, which extends to the citizenry at large, is an end-run around the law. It undermines the legal system by removing the enforcement of the law from the designated representatives of the people; that is, from the judiciary. In effect, this new right grants standing to people who should have no standing in any given abortion case.
Right now, there is only one law, an abortion law, and in only one state, Texas, that grants any citizen the standing to sue. If this methodology of prosecution holds up in the courts, it can extend to any law in any state. It can extend to: Guns. Thievery. Extortion. You name it. Bring out the thick statute book. If it becomes OK for any citizen to sue any other citizen for abortion, it can become OKfor any citizen to take the judicial process into his own hands and sue anyone for any law, just so long as a legislature brings that law under the purview of the new methodology.
This is a recipe for anarchy and vindictiveness, whatever one’s view of abortion.
By the same token, it is a recipe for the exploitation of the Israeli legal system by Palestinians for political and PR purposes.
If it is wrong in Texas, it is wrong in Israel.
Those profoundly offended by the methodology of the new Texas law should take a hard look at an arena of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is often shielded from scrutiny and consistency.
Those who wield the Israeli courts for political ends should receive the same acid critique now extended to the Texas politicians who have brought us a prosecutorial tool that undermines the legal system in Texas and could set a precedent for undermining it around the US.
Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News
