Limit to citizenship
Daniel Machover has displayed disloyalty to the country and is attempting to sabotage Israel's ability to defend itself, giving the interior minister the right to strip him of citizenship
Daniel Machover, the lawyer who requested arrest warrants in Britain against Maj. Gen. (ret.) Doron Almog, the former commander of IDF forces in Gaza, is, it seems, also an Israeli citizen.
But even if he wasn’t, and even if Machover was acting on behalf of Israeli citizens (Jews or Arabs), there is a very effective way to combat a phenomenon whereby citizens of this country are trying to castrate its ability to fight its enemies: revoke his citizenship.
This authority has been possessed by the interior ministry since it was passed. David Ben Gurion was prime minister then, and Israelis at that time knew exactly why it had been passed.
The vast majority of the Jewish public who lived in the country at that time, veteran residents and new immigrants alike, were still crying over the thousands killed in the war (of independence) imposed on it just four years earlier.
Proper aim
It was clear that the legal system, which included among others, the Law of Return, was designed for a proper aim.
Whoever did not want to be a part of that goal were welcome to leave. Not many did , but those who remained knew the State of Israel had a clear purpose: To uphold what the nations of the world promised, a national home for the Jewish people.
Right to life
There was no doubt that the right to defend the country was even more important than its establishment.
The principle was also clear to the sages of yore, who ruled one must rise up to kill his attacker rather than allow the attacker to kill.
I am not sure, however, the current interior minister, Ophir Pines-Paz, would be glad to use the authority given to him by law.
I’m also not sure that he’s not one of those who wishes to limit the ability of the IDF to fight its enemies, who do not hesitate to use any means to murder Jews because they are Jews.
New trends
A recent ‘trend’ in the Israeli Jewish society has been to try and look nice, to blame the “occupation” for all evils. To cry over the fate of soldiers who had to defend Jewish settlements over what is called the “green line.”
Doron Almog, Dan Halutz, and Moshe Yaalon are certainly not war criminals. They fought relentlessly for our defense, and whoever submits a false complaint against them, whether in Israel or outside, should know that he is losing his right to be a citizen in the State of Israel.
Innocents also fall in war. It happens in Iraq, and it has happened in every war that has ever taken place.
But whoever tries to threaten IDF officers is also telling the nations of the world that we are worse than every other nation.
That claim is also akin to saying we are forbidden to defend ourselves. That we must be more sterile than any other army on earth, and that the blood of Jews should be abandoned. The blood of our enemies is more red.
That is treason, which entitles the interior minister to revoke citizenship. Not to expel someone who lives here, but to tell him that he is no longer part of this country.
Stripping someone of Israeli citizenship who does not live here presents few problems – in the future, that individual is welcome to visit Israel in future with a tourist’s visa.
And if the person lives here, he should no longer be eligible to receive public funds.
Normal nations
Every normal nation would act according to these principles, and so should we. There should be no fear of the petitions that will certainly be submitted to the High Court.
Not because its senior judges will suddenly change their skin, but because if, this time, they patently interfere with government decisions, which affect our right to defend ourselves, they will simply turn themselves into an irrelevant body, and their institution will turn into a repulsive historical relic.
Chaim Misgav is a lawyer
