Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Democracy is being lost in the law - Dr. Ephraim Herrera




by Dr. Ephraim Herrera

[The] legal system -- places obstacles in the way of using the force required to restore order, imprison jihadists and outlaw the organizations that seek to wipe out democracy

On Oct. 8, in a sensitive area on the outskirts of Paris, a male and a female police officer on a security patrol were attacked in their car. The young attackers set fire to the vehicle and stopped the officers from leaving it. Both sustained serious burns, but neither used their weapons for fear of the legal system. 

They had reason to be afraid: A police officer who shoots and kills an armed serial criminal will stand trial on murder charges. It's no wonder that every year in France over 10,000 police officers (one out of every 15) are injured. France's police are fed up, and they have started demonstrating, carrying placards reading: "Re-evaluate the conditions for self-defense. The fear needs to shift to the other side" and "The legal system oppresses the police." 

France has a list of over 10,000 Muslims with ties to jihad. But in this matter, too, legal restrictions do not allow suspects to be jailed. Some of the terrorists from the Paris nightclub attack in November 2015, who killed 90 people, were listed as jihadists, but no action was taken against them. Amedy Coulibaly, who murdered four people at the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris last year, was given early parole, in line with the rules laid out by the French justice minister. The UOIF, a Muslim organization associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, whose founder declared openly that his goal is to bring Muslim rule to France, operates legally, even though it has been declared a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates. 

All these point out two basic problems. The first is a lack of willingness to acknowledge the new situation in the West: the Muslim ambition to take over the continent, whether through violence, like the jihadists, or through immigration and calls to Islam, like the Muslim Brotherhood. The methods used by the police and the courts are appropriate for criminal law, not a state of war. 

The second problem is the radicalization of the legal system, which places obstacles in the way of using the force required to restore order, imprison jihadists and outlaw the organizations that seek to wipe out democracy. It acts with forgiveness toward immigrants and radical Muslims who are a threat to a thousand different lawless areas where the police are afraid to go. And if they do go in and arrest a criminal, it's likely the suspect will be released the next day. As one embittered judge put it, "Everything is done to avoid putting a criminal in prison, and everything is done to get him out as quickly as possible." 

In Israel, civilians who neutralize terrorists are still appreciated, and rightly so. But there are growing signs of the French phenomenon described above. While Jewish settlements are evacuated mercilessly, the legal system demands that electricity and water be supplied to illegal Bedouin communities. The entire system turns a blind eye to illegal Palestinian construction as well as to the jihadist education in Muslim schools. Here, too, judges released avowed jihadists who then become murderous terrorists. 

Israel and the West are fighting the same war against Islam, which seeks to eliminate them. They must enact laws to hold the legal system, which has authority but not responsibility, in check. It is vital to acknowledge the situation as one of war; to classify Islamist organizations as illegal and support for them as a war crime; and to give security and law enforcement bodies appropriate tools and to defend them against lawsuits. Without these measures, democracy will get lost in the law, in the name of values.


Dr. Ephraim Herrera

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17543

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