Proponents and opponents of the judicial reform efforts that the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have pursued this year provide a textbook case, stated Archangel Michael this morning, of people who seek power, or seek to increase or hold on to their power, by invoking the values of a religious tradition or a political ideology - when in fact neither the ideology nor the religion represent what motivates the leadership of any such faction; the "values" serve only as a tool to convince the masses to support the faction's favored policies.
"The notion that even a king must remain subject to higher values already appears in the book of Deuteronomy," Michael observed. "He must write and always carry a Torah scroll, to remind him that he represents something greater, and that his and his dynasty's wearing of the crown is contingent on adherence to that greater system."
"That sensibility continues into the later prophets," continued Michael. "Isaiah and Jeremiah, in particular, spilled much ink calling out the exploitation of civil and religious authority by kings, nobles, false prophets, and the wealthy, even as the latter set kept citing exalted principles to justify the practices and policies that kept them on top, or helped them oust others. Lo and behold, Netanyahu values retaining his premiership over any ideological or religious principles he might invoke to support that; his opposition has attempted for years and years to wield every political issue as a weapon to dislodge him and to supplant him - only to govern more or less as he did when they got the chance."
"It's the claims of 'defending democracy' for me," added Archangel Gabriel. "That's basically the declared religion of so many, but each faction or leader defines the term in a self-serving way, whether it's exploiting populism and 'the will of the people' to attain political ends or appealing to unelected justices' self-arrogated power to undermine the express will of the people. It exactly mirrors idolatry, which is, in practice, the worship of power."
"Humans like to think they've grown past such primitive notions," chuckled Uriel, with a shake of the head. "The classic truths are eternal truths for a reason."
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