Simon Fink: Governance and Abuse of Power – New Safety Rails for Israeli Democracy

Simon Fink calls on Israel's next government to enact six structural reforms to protect democracy, including limiting the prime minister's term to eight years, mandatory resignation upon indictment, a permanent ban on convicted officials returning to office, a binding ethical code, enshrining the principle of public trust in a Basic Law requiring 80 Knesset members to amend, and legislating all reforms as Basic Laws.

Simon Fink, an investment manager with an academic background in law, politics, and economics, calls on Israel's next government to focus on structural reforms to protect democracy rather than economic or social policy. The article, published in Zman Yisrael, argues that the 2023 democratic crisis exposed a structural failure of missing protective barriers. Fink proposes six key reforms: limiting the prime minister's term to eight consecutive years; mandatory resignation of ministers and the prime minister upon indictment for fraud and breach of trust; a permanent ban on convicted individuals returning to public office; a binding ethical code with an independent enforcement body; enshrining in law the principle of public trust as formulated in Supreme Court rulings; and legislating all reforms as Basic Laws requiring an 80-member Knesset majority to change. The article cites the 2008 Shamgar Commission and the writings of James Madison, and addresses two possible objections: that the reforms are partisan, and that there is no written constitution. Fink emphasizes that the reforms involve no budgetary cost and can be implemented within weeks.