Judicial Reform
Former Attorney General Mandelblit, who had been responsible for indicting Prime Minister Netanyahu on three different felonies, said on Tuesday that Israel was on “the brink of a dictatorship.”
Former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit
Speaking on channel 12 TV news, Mandelblit said that Netanyahu was forbidden by the High Court to be involved in the protests because of a conflict of interests due to his trial and indictments. But hinted strongly that Netanyahu was indeed involved in the Judicial Reforms.
One analyst said that this deep split in the country was caused by Netanyahu ruthlessly trying everything he could to stay out of prison including rewriting Israel’s laws.
But, on Thursday July 14, 2023, the High Court agreed to hear a petition that called for Netanyahu’s removal from office because he had breached an agreement with the High Court not to be involved in the Judicial Reform legislation due to a conflict of interests. In response, Netanyahu called the High Courts decision ‘anti-democratic.’
Part of the current Judicial Reform legislation was the ‘reasonableness bill,’ that stripped the high court of any power to override a decision taken by the government or government official. Up until now, the High Court could block a bill or a decision by a government official, should they deem that bill or decision ‘unreasonable.’
One analyst pointed out that should the bill to cancel “reasonableness” be voted into law, a Prime Minister could appoint, for example, his completely unqualified son to be the Minister of Defense and no one could do anything about it. The Prime Minister could fire the attorney-general and no one could stop him. The Prime Minister could even decide that elections were no longer necessary. That he could serve for life. That he could impose whatever rules he wanted and no one could stop him.
The first reading of that bill, a part of the Judicial Reforms, came up for a vote on Tuesday July 11, 2023.
Before the vote, Knesset members were allowed their few minutes to speak for or against the bill. Opposition leader Benny Gantz said that a snowball effect (of anti-democratic laws) could crush the country.
As Justice Minister Yariv Levin spoke, TV commentary on Channel 12 news pointed out the many “lies” and “distortions” Levin cited to support the bill. This observation was also made by Channel 13 TV news during Levin’s speech.
One TV commentator criticized Levin saying he was more worried about this ‘reasonableness’ bill when the very security of Israel was threatened from Lebanon, Gaza Jenin and Iran. “Why not put the bill aside until things quiet down, for the good of the country?” asked legal commentator Aviad Glickman.
Another observer saw the steady hand of Netanyahu behind this bill. Netanyahu, said the observer, knew that Levin has been obsessed with Judicial Reform for years and was manipulating that obsession to stay out of prison. Should the accusation of Netanyahu’s involvement be proved to be true, the High Court could remove Netanyahu from office.
The observer also said that ultra-nationalist MK Simcha Rothman, who was a rabid pro-Judicial Reform supporter, now found himself in the limelight, honored in synagogue with aliyot, calls to the Torah reading, invited to weddings and bar mitzvahs by hosts that previously would have ignored him. Rothman, said the observer, was now a chess piece on the board with Netanyahu’s hand moving him around, as he was moving around Levin. All to keep himself out of prison.
Another analyst said that Netanyahu had even played his queen, sending his wife Sarah Netanyahu to keep a steely eye on Israeli businessman Arnon Milchen in the corruption trial over gifts of champagne, cigars and diamonds, where Milchen was one of the star witnesses. As he testified in a make-shift courtroom in Brighton, England, Milchen had to see Sarah staring at him from only a few feet away. A sensation Milchen later said, was unsettling.
Protests
Protesters Blocking Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway
On Saturday night, protesters against the Judicial Reforms gathered around the country for the 28th week. By late Monday evening, protesters had already begun gathering outside the Knesset in Jerusalem in anticipation of the vote the following day. Protest organizers were calling for “A Day Of Disruption,” on Tuesday. The organizers called on protesters to gather at Ben Gurion airport and demonstrate against the proposed
legislation. Last week a similar protest at the airport blocked traffic and prevented passengers free access to and from the main terminal.
Transport minister Miri Regev fumed on tv that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, had allowed the protests at Ben Gurion airport.
In protests over the last few weeks, roads were blocked in several key areas, like the roads leading into Jerusalem and the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv and the Ben Gurion airport.
This week more than 1,000 police were in the streets to contain the protesters. Water canons rumbled onto the streets near the Ayalon Highway. Mounted police used horses to push protesters aside. Over 70 protesters were arrested and several hospitalized by the end of the day, some injured by over zealous policemen.
While police officials said they had behaved no differently on Tuesday than at any other protest, critics pointed out that Ami Eshed, the previous head of the Tel Aviv police, who used less aggressive tactics, had been fired, and replaced by a new head.
Protest in Tel Aviv
TV footage showed more violent police tactics than had been displayed in the past. Itamar Ben Gvir, National Security Minister, was blamed for the more aggressive tactics. Commentators said that he’d been calling for stronger police response since the protests began and was instrumental in replacing Ami Eshed, who Ben Gvir thought too gentle with protesters, as head of the Tel Aviv police units.
But, according to pro-Judicial Reform politicians appearing on Israeli TV, the crowds were not significant. A coalition spokesman said that the government had grown accustomed to protests and was inured to their influence.
Coalition supporters were still saying the protesters were simply voters who had lost the election and were trying to get back into power through demonstrations.
Another spokesman pointed out, only about 40,000 were in the streets on Tuesday rather than the hundreds of thousands that had turned out to protest when Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was fired by PM Netanyahu for criticism of the Judicial Reforms. Those protests saw Netanyahu retreat and reinstate Gallant.
This time the government didn’t budge. When the time came for a vote the coalition had garnered 64 votes to the oppositions 56. The bill passed the first reading. Two more votes are needed to put the bill into law.
Those votes could happen any day, in a month or not until the fall.
But, on July 14, 2023 the Times of Israel reported, “In order to meet the coalition’s self-imposed deadline to finalize the reasonableness block before the July 30 end of the parliamentary summer session, the Knesset’s Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee (headed by MK Simcha Rothman) will meet next week in hopes of approving the bill and present it for a final vote during the week of July 23.”
As Kan Channel 11 TV political analyst Michael Shemeh said, “This “reasonableness” bill only represents 3% of the laws that Justice Minister Levin wants to pass as part of the Judicial Reforms… Netanyahu might be thinking, if this (protest) is what we see after the 1st reading of the law, why not go full out? Pass the 2nd and 3rd readings. The protests won’t get any worse.”
Another commentator on Channel 11 said that the police seemed to be behaving differently. More forcefully. “I don’t know what a peaceful civil war looks like but this looks like what it is,” said the commentator.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin
The decision to push the bill forwards will be made by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who according to his own statements is determined to pass bills that will turn Judicial Reform into reality. Some observers use Levin’s own statements to point out he is obsessed with the idea of Judicial Reforms. He is quoted as saying that when he first raised the issue years ago he was laughed at. But now he is at the pinnacle of success.
Levin has backing from another enthusiastic supporter, Simcha Rothman, head of the Knesset Judiciary Committee. Both were smiling and celebrating for the cameras shaking the hand of a grinning Prime Minister Netanyahu after the vote that saw the bill past the first reading.
Congratulations after vote
Earlier in the day an economist from the Ministry of Finance had attempted to speak at a meeting of Rothman’s Judicial committee but Rothman forbade him, saying he had no permission from the Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotritch, another ultra-nationalist supporter of the Judicial Reform.
However, the Knesset’s legal council told Rothman he had no right to deny anyone from speaking to the committee. Observers pointed out that Rothman’s behavior is only a hint of what could happen should the Judicial Reforms pass into law. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir told followers on Thursday that the reforms would continue until all of them were passed into law.
Efforts have been put forward to moderate the “reasonableness” bill and take out some of the parts offensive to the opposition. But so far no compromise has been reached. Netanyahu has made it clear that he has no plans to pause the push for Judicial Reforms, even though earlier in the month he had said he would.
Protests against Judicial Reform continued on Thursday in front of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv in support of President Biden’s criticism of the Judicial Reforms. Some held placards decrying Netanyahu as a dictator.
Protest leaders have also called for another Day of Disturbance next Monday in protest over the Judicial Reforms.
Push Back
Former Prime Minister/Minister of Defense Ehud Barak angrily berated Netanyahu on TV after the vote. On Thursday, a number of volunteer police resigned over the Judicial Reforms saying they are not willing to support a biased police department and a government headed towards dictatorship. Also, 300 reserve cyber-warfare specialists said they would no longer report for reserve duty.
According to Ynetnews, on Thursday, July 14, 2023, more than 2,000 physicians and medical students contacted the Medical Association and called for steps to be taken to bring the Judicial Reform legislation to a halt. "We are watching in astonishment at the organization's sheepish silence while the country is changing its face.”
And media reports state that hundreds of graduates of the military’s prestigious Talpiot program have signed a letter saying they will not show up for voluntary reserve duty unless the government halts its plans to overhaul the judiciary. In addition, reserve pilots issued a message, “We swore to serve the Kingdom, not the King.” One observer likened this to the soldier’s revolt on the Russian ship Potemkin in 1905 that some say ignited the Russian Revolution.
One analyst said that the army is the only force that could stop Netanyahu’s push for Judicial Reforms that seemingly would result in a dictatorship. That is, unless the courts can stop him.
David Horovitz, editor of the Times of Israel, wrote that “Politics cannot be kept out of the military. The political parameters within which Israel operates are the basis for the IDF: Israel has a “people’s army,” a fighting force based on the readiness of the people to risk their lives in its ranks protecting the country. If, as is the case today, a growing swath of the public fears that the government is abusing or is ready to abuse that readiness, or is likely to abuse the power wielded by our military, then the contract …comes into question.”
Selection of Judges
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid
On Wednesday, the Knesset voted in another member of the Judicial Committee that appoints judges. This was the last vacant post. However, Justice Minister Levin has refused to call a meeting of the committee to approve new judges. Analysts say that is because Levin sees that the make-up of the Judicial Committee will not insure that he can control which judges are appointed.
One of the Opposition leaders, Yair Lapid, gave Levin 14-days to call the committee to a meeting, or he would take the issue to the High Court.
In another setback to Netanyahu’s indictment of case 4,000, the High Court found that there was enough evidence to advance a criminal trial on the charge of bribery, where Netanyahu as then Minister of Communications allowed businessman Shaul Elovitch an advantage over competitors. A lower court had previously found that there wasn’t enough evidence.
Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee: Sound Familiar?
In a seemingly unrelated development, according to the Huffington Post former US President Donald Trump has filed a motion that once re-elected he could fire all those involved in his indictments and have the charges against him dismissed.
“Trump’s lawyers, in their 12-page filing asks, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon to reject the Department of Justice’s request for a December trial date. Instead, the filing asks her to postpone it indefinitely, and certainly until after the 2024 presidential election….
“What the brief neglects to mention is that, should Trump win, he would have the unfettered ability to end any and all federal prosecutions against him, no matter how far advanced….”
According to the Huffington Post, Norm Eisen, a former lawyer in Barack Obama’s White House who worked for the House prosecution team during Trump’s first impeachment, said there is little question that Trump, as head of the executive branch, could make his federal cases go away and fire special counsel Jack Smith.”
“If convicted,” Eisen added, “The court could find that the … business of the presidency could be conducted from a prison cell.”
International Opinion
U.S. President Joe Biden has come out against Israel’s push for judicial reforms. On Sunday he told CNN that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government has some “of the most extreme members” he’s seen in Israel, and that cabinet ministers who back settling “anywhere they want” in the West Bank are “part of the problem” in the conflict.”
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman created a stir when he wrote that the Judicial Reforms and other moves by the Netanyahu government were causing a rift between Israel and the USA.
Biden has refused to invite Netanyahu to the White House, as it traditional following the election of a Prime Minister, but rather has invited Israel’s president Yitzchak Herzog. Progressive Democrat Ilhan Omar has said there was “no way in hell” she’d attend Herzog’s speech to the US Congress.
Crime Wave
The killings continue in the Arab Israeli community. Four more Arab men, most known to the police, or connected to families involved in feuds, were killed on Wednesday bringing the total to 122 so far this year. A Nazareth woman asked, “What has (National Security Minister) Ben Gvir done about these killings? Nothing!” This criticism was echoed by another Arab Israeli from Shafram. “His (Ben Gvir’s) term in office has seen the worst increase in crime and killings. He is making a joke of spilled Arab Israeli blood. He should resign."