Amnon Rubinstein

Amnon Rubinstein is an Israeli scholar, politician and columnist.

He was born in Tel Aviv in 1931 and earned a Ph.D. degree in Law from London University. He has taught Law and served as dean of Tel Aviv University's Law school.

Political career

Rubinstein's political career began as head of "Shinui", a protest movement that was founded after the Yom Kippur War. Shinui joined Yigal Yadin's "The Democratic Movement" to form the Dash party. In the 1977 parliamentary elections, "Dash" won 15 out of 120 seats in the Knesset. Dash's victory came at the expense of the Israeli Labor party: for the first time in the 29 years since the founding of the modern state of Israel, a party other than Labor was elected into government. However, Rubinstein and Dash did not join Menachem Begin's Likud government coalition.

During elections for the 12th Assembly of the Knesset, Rubinstein's Shinui merged with Shulamit Aloni's Ratz and Zionist-socialist Mapam to form Meretz - a dovish, social-democratic liberal party. Meretz joined Itzhak Rabin's government in 1992 and Rubinstein was chosen as the Minister for Communications. However, early into his term he became Education Minister instead, replacing Shulamit Aloni who was forced to resign from office under pressure from religious factors, following statements she had made about teaching Evolution versus Creationism.

As an Education Minister, Rubinstein earned popularity because of his liberal approach, which de-facto manifested in lowering the bar for highschool graduates to enter higher education. He developed a system whereby Israeli highschool students would be required to take fewer matriculation exams: the subjects for the exams would be chosen each year by lottery. He also spoke out against the standardized tests which are required of Israeli university applicants (roughly equivalent to the SAT exams), claiming that if he had been required to pass these exams, he would not have been accepted to Law school.

Rubinstein lived to hear his own obituary read in 2000, when due to a practical joke, Knesset chairman Avraham Burg was lead to believe that he had died. Rubinstein, who was hospitalized at the time for a minor complaint, saw his eulogy broadcast on television.

In 2000, Rubinstein left Meretz and retired from politics in favor of academic activity. He is currently dean of the Law College in Netanya.

From 2000 to 2004 Rubinstein published editorials and opinion-columns in the newspaper Haaretz. He focused mainly on countering antisemitism and anti-Zionism in the European radical left. In one of his more famous editorials, Rubinstein chastised Human Rights groups for picking on Israel while turning a blind eye to far worse atrocities committed by Arabs (such as Palestinian terrorism and the ethnic cleansing in Sudan).

In 2004 Rubinstein left Haaretz in favor of Maariv.

Notable articles

• About antisemitism and the new antisemitism:
  • "Human Rights Watch and Its Condemnation of Suicide Bombings" (http://middleeastinfo.org/article.php?sid=1608) (originally published in Haaretz)
  • "Fighting the New Antisemitism" (http://www.jafi.org.il/education/hasbara/headlines/a7.html) (originally published in Haaretz)
  • "Arab Tragedy" (http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=211796&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y) (on the poor state of the Arab people in Arab countrirs)
  • "Everyone’s a Nazi, except for the Nazis" (http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&xCache=%7Bts%20%272004%2D07%2D10%2001%3A27%3A38%27%7D&articleID=9090) (published in Maariv)
  • "Why Jews Leave France" (http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART/768/168.html): abstract: the French Left wing opposes neo-Nazism when it comes from the right wing, but not when it comes from the "oppressed world" of the Arabs. This is the big treason of the French Left, which came as a shock to the Jews who used to see the Left as their true friend. (published in Maariv, Hebrew)
• About Law and justice:
  • "A happy ending, but..." (http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=243137&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y) (on the trail of Amos Baranes)

Books

• "The Constitutional Law of the State of Israel" (Shoken publishing)
• "Upholding morality" (Shoken publishing)
• "From Herzl to Rabin and henceforth" (Shoken publishing)
• "Daat Yachid" (Shoken publishing)
• "Israel and the family of nations" (with Alexander Jacobson, Shoken publishing)he:אמנון רובינשטיין