Benny Gantz Quotes

The people can never err more in supposing that by multiplying their representatives beyond a certain limit they strengthen the barrier against the government of a few.

Parliamentary government is simply a mild and disguised form of compulsion. We agree to try strength by counting heads instead of breaking heads, but the principle is exactly the same... The minority gives way not because it is convinced that it is wrong, but because it is convinced that it is a minority.

… though the majority might be temporarily wrong, in the end, a majority that remained a majority over a period of years was usually right, and in our country, at least, we have been governed by the will of the majority. It has not meant, nor I surmise, does it mean in the present, the destruction of minorities …

You cannot have a government for and by the people if it is not represented by all of the people.

The process of forming government in a minority is one where you talk to everyone and see: What do you have in common? And is there enough commonality?

You can't keep a democracy going in a functional and constructive way if only 10 percent of the people you represent think your institution is functioning in an acceptable way. That's just not viable.

Elected representatives are so embedded in the basic notion of what constitutes a democratic nation that it has become indistinguishable from any other form of democratic governance.

In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.

The right of a minority is so important in a democracy.

You can not possibly have a broader basis for government than that which includes all the people, with all their rights in their hands, and with an equal power to maintain their rights.

It is conceivable that a party might gain the majority in parliament and claims the government for itself.

The only moral Foundation of Government is the Consent of the People. But to what an Extent Shall We carry this Principle? Shall We Say, that every Individual of the Community, old and young, male and female, as well as rich and poor, must consent, expressly to every Act of Legislation? No, you will say. This is impossible. How then does the Right arise in the Majority to govern the Minority, against their Will? Whence arises the Right of the Men to govern Women, without their Consent? Whence the Right of the old to bind the Young, without theirs.

If a democracy is to remain real and stable, the majority must be humane and farsighted enough to take care of minorities who have serious objections to the majorities point of view and who, because of lack of numbers, do not have the political strength to impose their own policy solutions through their own political power.

The parliamentary regime is a regime of parties

All societies, including societies called democratic, are ruled by a minority.

The people never have and never will be able to understand how the will of a majority of the House of Representatives can be set aside by the judgment of a few men on a powerful committee.

In our Governments, the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents.

A democratic government must always be left free to be operated upon by the will of the majority of the time being. All that the government of the day can do is to ascertain what now appears to be the best principle.

A democracy ... requires groups that assert all of society's interests, not just those of a small group.

The great advantage of representatives is their capacity of discussing public affairs. For this, the people collectively are extremely unfit, which is one of the chief inconveniences of a democracy.

Every member has his own way of sorting out the conflict between personal judgment and constituent opinion.

I believe in party sponsorship. I believe in Party government as distinguished from personal government, individual, dictatorial, autocratic or what not. In a citizenship of more than 100 million it is impossible to reach an agreement upon all the questions. Parties are formed by those who reach a consensus of opinion.

I've never understood multi-party democracy. It's hard enough with two parties.

Our system of government in Israel has permitted minority groups and sectarian parties to force their way on the majority.

There is nothing unusual in coalition partners differing on some issues. It is a character of democratic system.