General Category > Ask JTF
Ask JTF For Chaim's Jewish Birthday, Sunday, 21 Tevet (December 30).
ftf:
Hi Chaim
(Not my actual question, just a quick commment, responding to my question from last week you mentioned a single case of a woman in saudi arabia being in trouble for having been raped, I was surprised, as the way that you mentioned this, you made it sound as if it were an isolated case, which it most definately was not, as in some muslim countries it is very common for women to be executed for having been raped, it happens a few times a year in iran for instance)
Now onto my real question, you're probably not going to like this, but I'm going to ask you about tax again.
Someone living in a country, say america, is benefiting from the army, the police, the prisons, etc whether they buy anything or not, therefore, why should people who choose not to buy anything not pay for those services from which they are benefiting?
Shalom.
VIVA KAHANE:
You answered a previous question as to the way that movies and documentaries handled the holocaust as being "atrocious". I disagree. I have seen some excellent documentaries on PBS and the History Channel which depict as accurately as possible the depths of depravity to which Germany sunk in this period. Among some of the accurate movies I have seen were "Playing For Time", "Voyage Of The Damned", "The Hiding Place" and "Escape From Sobibor". You can not precisely capture on a two-dimensional screen what is clearly three dimensional but I think some producers have occasionally done commendable jobs. In a generation where many consider that if it hasn't been on the silver screen or the boob tube then it did not happen, I believe that Hollywood has occasionally accurately depicted Nazi subhumanity.
dhimmi_pride:
Chaim,
Why do you think so many conservatives in the media have singled out Mike Huckabee to attack rather than the other candidates including Giuliani who supports abortion and McCain who supports amnesty? Do you believe that some conservatives will carry out with their threats to boycott the general election if Huckabee wins the primary? What does this say about the current state of the Republican party? Do you foresee a major split developing between religious conservatives and Wall Street republicans that could lead to one of these groups eventually leaving Republican party? After the fall of the USSR it seems like there is not much uniting the republican coalition besides opposition to the Democrats.
thanks
JTFFan:
Dear Chaim,
What do we do about affirmative action when the president gets elected? Many unqualified people get into Universities just because the color of their skin and race. This has to be abolished.
G-d Bless,
-JTFFan
KalmanBenMenachem:
Dear Chaim,
My question is a response to a question asked last week by "QQ" regarding the Israeli Supreme Court, and your answer concerning how the Israeli Supreme Court overruled Ehud Barak when he wanted to cut off electricity to Arabs, and how that shows that Israel is not a free country. (I am paraphrasing QQ's question and your response.)
The ability of a nation's supreme court to invalidate a law passed by a state or national legislature, or an executive action taken by a state or national leader, is called "judicial review." As far as I know, judicial review is an American innovation. Judicial review is one of the "checks and balances" we all learned about in school, that make America free and great.
The Doctrine of Judicial Review is supposed to be the way that the Supreme Court insures that laws and executive actions conform to the Constitution. For example, during the Korean War, the steel mills went on strike. President Truman needed steel for the war, so he issued an executive order seizing the mills. He went on radio and TV to announce this.
The steel companies sued the government, and the government lost. The Supreme Court held that the President has no power to act except in those cases expressly or implicitly authorized by the Constitution or by an act of Congress. (And here, the Constitution conferred no authority on the President to take control of private property.) [The case is Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) 343 U.S. 579]
The big debate now between originalist jurists, like Justice Scalia, and activist jurists, like Justice Ginsburg, comes down to one word above: "implicitly." In Roe v. Wade, for example, the Supreme Court decided that any state law banning abortion was illegal, because the Constitution conferred a "right of privacy." The Constitution does not say so explicitly, but the Court found it to be "implicit."
So my question is this: Does Israel have a Constitution? If not, what is the Israeli Supreme Court reviewing laws and executive actions against?
Thank you as always Chaim for your patience and erudition.
Kalman Ben Menachem
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