Power and the Danger That Comes With It

There are two departments, which have abused their power beyond that was given to them by the state: The Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services and the State Attorney’s office.

In my opinion, they have abused the power given to them by the State, the Knesset.

But why are the members of the Knesset so reluctant to fight these two departments of the government?

Social Workers:

Fighting social affairs means fighting social workers who are seen in Israel by many as “saviors”. Not only does much of the public see the social workers as such but also the courts in Israel give them too much leniency. Therefore, they are empowered not only by the courts but also by the Knesset. Instead of criticizing them, too many gives them a round of applause.

Despite the fact that most of these Social Workers do much good for Israel, they make crucial mistakes that are demolishing our classical structure of the family by diminishing parental authority. Today parents are afraid of their own children, for they fear that the Minister of Social Affairs will intervene in traditional parental functions, which need not government interference.

In an age in which, children are given more power than should have; parents are reluctant to criticize or punish (nonviolent punishment) their children, fearing the family will be put under the Social Workers scrutiny.

Ultimately, children will be the victims in this situation. A Parents’ job is to prepare the children for the future. It is a parent’s responsibility to teach their child that the world has rules and these rules need to be abided by – in the “old days”; we used to call this “discipline”.

With the constant government intervention or the fear that the government may intervene, results in our future generation’s children lacking the basic tools to survive in the real world.

Without discipline, our children will have difficulties succeed in life.

The state attorney’s office

What’s the difference between a powerful state department and an over powerful state department?  Their power goes beyond the power that they were given when the State Department originated.

The current PM Benjamin Netanyahu has promised in the past to “to restrain the power of the DA”. Not only did he not fulfill this promise, he is being investigated himself for corruption charges. In spite of the power that the state attorney has, the Knesset has finally passed a law in August of 2016, in which a public complaints commission rule on the state attorney (נציבות תלונות הציבור על מייצגי המדינה בערכאות – משרד המשפטים) has been created.

The purpose of this commission is to handle all complaints against the State Attorney’s office.

Perhaps Israel can use the United States as an example to create a system, which is not muddled with problems that Israel encounters. The United States had effectively created a checks and balances system for people to bring complaints against federal officials. Following the Watergate Scandal in the 1970’s, Congress created what was called the Office of Independent Counsel, which appointed a “special prosecutor” to investigate any allegations of misconduct by federal government.

So for example, if there were improper conduct on behalf of the Department of Justice, the special prosecutor would investigate the misconduct without having any conflict of interest from the justice department. Having a separate department doing investigations of improper conduct is the perfect way to create a system of checks and balances that does not discourage someone from bringing a complaint of any government official.

 A last word:

We are a small and still very young society. We are struggling to create a real democracy but as far as I am concerned, we are far away from finding the balance between the Power needed by the DA and the actual power the DA has.