(JNS) Professors for a Strong Israel issued an open letter on March 29 denouncing the protests against the government’s judicial reform program, saying democracy wasn’t saved but “trampled.”

The protesters’ victory was a Pyrrhic one in which the whole country lost, the group said

“The government capitulated and halted the legislation opposed by a minority. Now the coalition and opposition have convened to try and hammer out an agreement. They may succeed, or they may not. However, the fabric of Israeli society has already been tremendously damaged,” the letter states.

Israel’s social compact, by which conflicts are “resolved in parliament by compromises and coalitions,” has been broken, according to the group. “A minority rose and broke all the rules,” declaring that “it is glimpsing a slippery slope that may one day lead to a dictatorship that destroys the basis of our existence, and therefore all is permissible.”

The letter was signed by professor Amihood Amir of the Computer Science Department of Bar-Ilan University, who serves as chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel. The group’s aim is to promote the security and Jewish character of the state.

“Employees, students and faculty members feel threatened and are afraid of voicing their opinions, and there is an overall feeling akin to that in the old USSR,” wrote Amir.

“Co-workers who for years collaborated in harmony, because they did not introduce politics into their relations, are now compelled to take a stand—are you with us or with the enemy?” the letter states.

“When one side prohibits the other from working, for a political reason that the coerced party does not identify with, it invariably mars the work relationship. In some cases employees who support the reform were forced by their employer to express satisfaction that their ideology had been trampled. … The feelings of frustration then evolve into feelings of hate. This rift will not be easily mended.”

The group also referred to the refusal of reservists to serve, describing it as “a military revolt—when pilots and reservists refuse to report to duty. … Soldiers are dictating to the government who the ministers should be.”

The “revolution” of the anti-reform activists is in no way justified, the group said, noting that the “philosophers of modern democracy” identified only a few, extreme cases where revolution was “the only available option,” involving life, liberty or property.

“Life, meaning that a majority has no right to massacre a minority. Liberty, whereby a majority cannot inter a minority in prisons and camps, and property; the majority can not confiscate the property of the minority. The only time in the history of Israel when we came close to violating one of these rights was when 10,000 people were expelled from their homes in Gush Katif [in 2005]. Even then, the minority tearfully accepted the majority’s decision,” the letter continues.

“The situation today is nowhere near that. There is no threat to the life or property of any minority. Nor is anyone under threat of incarceration. The only existing threat is in the minds of some people who frightened themselves with the thoughts that, perhaps, the end of democracy is around the corner.”

“The problem with acting upon self-induced fears is that they are not quantifiable,” the letter continues. “This unchecked and unquantified behavior leads to anarchy, erosion of democracy and the destruction of the state. The surrounding Arab countries have already recognized this process and are calling it ‘the Jewish Spring,’ expecting the results of Rabin Square to equal those of [Egypt’s] Tahrir Square.”

Amir concludes with a plea to the protesters:

“I entreat the revolutionaries to come to their senses. It is indeed a joy to burn tires, and it is exhilarating to feel that one is a revolutionary, but for the sake of democracy, for the sake of the nation and for the sake of our country, please desist. Return to the path of parliamentary democracy, for this is the only viable way for a shared existence in a society like ours.”

PHOTO: Israel protest Israelis protesting in Tel Aviv against the government’s judicial reform plans grapple with police, March 4, 2023. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90.