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Please circle size desired: S-M-L-XL Please clip and mail to: The Jewish News 20300 Civic Center Drive Southfield, Michigan 48076 NAME ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP (Enclose names, addresses and T-shirt sizes for additional children 67( $15 per subscription.) 36 Friday, September 5, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Shaking The System Continued from preceding page can oleh (new immigrant) liv- ing in Netanya exemplifies this. His career had been in health and sanitation, so he volunteered to be a "health observer" in Israel. He ob- served, and reported to the sanitation department, the deplorable conditions in a cer- tain restaurant, saying they created a health hazard that should be corrected immedi- ately. The department official gave a nebulous answer and dismissed the oleh, who responded that the official was irresponsible and should be fired. Whereupon the of- ficial leaned back in his chair and said, "My party has 700,000 votes that will keep me right here in my job. How many votes can you get to remove me?" Such arrogance, CCC em- phasizes, is pervasive throughout the bureaucracy, demoralizing Israelis with fresh ideas and rebuffing foreign entrepreneurs with in- vestment capital and experitise. The mentality that govern- ment employees are "doing citizens a favor" by comply- ing with their requests is in- grained in the system. "And the sad part," Harris la- mented, "is_ that so many Israelis have come to expect this type of treatment as nor- mal and proper, without even realizing they are being denied democratic rights. Electoral Reform will correct all that. It will take our coun- try out of the Dark Ages." Simcha Dinitz, CCC's cur- - rent president, recently said, "Politicians must be re- minded at all times that they were elected to represent the people, not to replace them, and bureaucrats must be constantly made aware that they are there to serve the people, not to torment them." Economic Minister Gad Yaacobi, a long-time cham- pion of Electoral Reform, is spearheading the current movement. His proposal would retain part of the exist- ing system, and introduce a new dimension into Israeli politics: constituent responsibility. According to Yaacobi's plan, the country would be divided into 16 voting dis- tricts, or constituencies. Each would elect five represen- tatives to the Knesset, total- ing 80. The remaining 40 would gain Knesset seats under the existing propor- tional representation system. "The new system would bring the best candidates to the fore, and allow the electorate to choose from the most qual- ified each party has to offer," Yaacobi said. Since 1971, Yaacobi has managed to bring the pro- posal to the Knesset floor several times, but it never gained the 61 votes needed for passage. Once, he did get 61 votes on the first reading, but the opposition smothered the action at committee levels. Although Yaacobi support- ers- are influential — Herzog, Dinitz, Communications Min- ister Amnon Rubinstein, Ed- ucation Minister Yitzhak Navon, and CCC, to mention a few — the opposition is strong, too. It includes Minister Without Portfolio Moshe Arens and Transport Minister Haim Corfu, plus the small parties whose ex- istence would be threatened. An editorial in the Jerusalem Post this month advocating an "overhaul" of the electoral system noted that Yaacobi's most recent ef- fort had the support of 44 Knesset members. But Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir de- layed the measure, reasoning that he might need the sup- port of the small religious parties who strongly oppo5f,!. the bill because it would reduce their power. The Post editorial called on the Knesset "to stand up and be counted" in changing a system whose "grave defects have become manifest." Harris outlined some of the proposed system's advantages voters will choose candidates of their choice, legislators will be accountable to the people, minority blackthail of the ma- jority will be eliminated, in- dividual citizens and their elected representatives will establish direct relations. In the process, she said, many of the smaller parties might in- deed disappear. However, they could form coalitions among themselves or with the larger parties to assure that their ideologies survive. Philadelphia-born Eliezer Whartman, veteran Israeli journalist and currently editor of the Israeli Press Ser- vice, has written numerous articles supporting Electoral Reform. In one, he quotes the answer of former minister Mordechai Ben Porat when Whartman asked him, in the Knesset cafeteria, why so many MKs opposed changing the system. `Look around you," Porat said. "Most of these people couldn't get elected dog catchers if they ran on a constituency basis. They know it, and they're determined not to change things. In a way, you can't blame them." lb be sure, many MKs are conscientious, capable lawmakers of the highest in- tegrity. But, like all MKs, they must vote the party line. CCC's chairman, Dr. Mark Casson, compared Israel's Knesset and Cabinet to royal- ty. "Israel has become a con- glomerate of party fiefdoms, each with its own king and each exercising 'Divine Right'