Leading right-wing journalist blasts Netanyahu, proposal for remaking judicial panel

A leading conservative journalist on Friday blasted a new proposal for the selection of judges floated by the government and slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for getting “dragged around” by Justice Minister Yariv Levin.

Amit Segal, the most prominent right-wing voice at the leading Channel 12 news network, wrote in a tweet promoting his weekly column in Yedioth Ahronoth that “Levin and Netanyahu are now promoting a foolish, half-baked and completely rotten initiative, which will create a tie in the committee for selecting judges between the coalition and the opposition.”

Cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs said Wednesday that the coalition plans to pass legislation in the fall changing the judicial selection process — arguably the most far-reaching element of the planned legislative package — and then will shelve the remainder of its radical and divisive judicial overhaul package.

In its current form, the legislation, which was suspended in March but is ready for its final readings at short notice, would bring judicial appointments under near-absolute government control. Fuchs asserted that if the government is unable to reach a compromise with the opposition, it will simply restructure the Judicial Selection Committee so that half of its representatives would be from the coalition and half of its members would be from the opposition.

Such a move would completely politicize the committee; it could also leave a loophole in which a party broadly supportive of the coalition could formally sit in the opposition and gain representation on the panel, thereby essentially giving the coalition full control.

“What happened to the Netanyahu we knew?” Segal wrote. “The Netanyahu of the past was a leader who controlled his party and his camp with sophistication and charisma, who knew how to maneuver between the extremists and the moderates and pursue a hidden goal, which was revealed to everyone else only gradually and belatedly.”

Since the formation of the government, which Segal charged was carried out amid “extortion,” Netanyahu “has drifted from crisis to crisis, in an event he did not initiate, with his goals transparent to all.”

Segal also claimed that Levin presented his plan in January to dramatically weaken the judiciary “without Netanyahu knowing its details.”

“Bound by an illusory conflict of interest arrangement, full of fear of forced recusal, the prime minister gave Levin the Justice Ministry so that he would carry out important, but limited reform, in the hope that he would act wisely,” Segal said.

Segal said that Shas leader Aryeh Deri, a close confidant of the premier, himself only found out about the plan when Levin unveiled it on live television.

The journalist argued that Levin, together with far-right Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman, another key architect of the overhaul, “took Netanyahu and the country on a nightmarish trip, the price of which so far: tens of billions for the economy, a ten percent devaluation of the shekel, eleven [fewer] mandates for the coalition.”

In a piece for Channel 12, Segal wrote that while he agreed with Levin’s position in general that the judicial system needed reform, “the prognosis brought too severe a treatment.”

“Now Levin and Netanyahu want to make it a tie between the coalition and the opposition,” Segal said of the proposal to split the seats on the judicial committee.

“This stupid initiative from Levin and Netanyahu will lead to one of two terrible possibilities: either weak judges that both sides agree on, or the two sides will bring their extremes,” he said.

Segal also predicted that the government in any case did not have the ability to push through a bill to remake the judicial selection panel, since several coalition lawmakers have come out against the move.

“What really needs to be done is changes that are more subtle, but important, starting with the next Knesset [session], when everyone has calmed down. They need to come to agreements, and [Supreme Court President] Esther Hayut and the opposition leaders will need to understand the magnitude of the hour and agree,” he wrote.

“Netanyahu can’t get dragged around by Levin anymore,” Segal said of the justice minister, a Likud lawmaker and key ally of the premier. “This has been true from the moment the reforms were presented: changes like this need to be led by the prime minister and not by a minister.”

Segal also referred to the assertion by the High Court of Justice on Thursday that it views a recently passed law blocking the court from ordering the prime minister to recuse himself as a highly personal piece of legislation. The court implied that it is considering an explosive ruling that would delay the implementation of the law.

“[The] hearing at the High Court, whose conclusion will actually be that Netanyahu cannot deal with the reform, is a bitter mistake and I hope the judges will come to their senses,” Segal wrote.

“But Netanyahu honestly did not intervene in the judicial issue at first — not because he didn’t want to, but because he was really afraid that he would be ordered to recuse,” he added, referring to a conflict of interest arrangement barring the premier from involvement in matters that could impact his ongoing criminal trial.

Segal said that while Netanyahu believes he has space for overhaul negotiations until November, the High Court will hold hearings in September on the recently passed reasonableness law, potentially reducing the prime minister’s room for maneuver.

“I suggest to all sides, really to all sides, to put aside their nuclear weapons — each side has them — and start talking now, and for Netanyahu to intervene,” Segal wrote.

“But the situation in the judicial system cannot continue as it is. And whoever thinks that the protests will bring down the government and then we will return to the old era where 15 judges decide whatever they want, is making a bitter mistake,” Segal wrote.

Speaking on Channel 12 Friday evening, Segal also charged that the reasonableness law passed last week “changes nothing in reality, doesn’t weaken the Supreme Court, it won’t create a dictatorship.” Critics say the bill which curtails judicial oversight on the decisions of elected officials, is in fact a power grab that opens the door to corruption.

Legislation that gives the coalition almost complete control of the Judicial Selection Committee, and thus of appointing judges, passed its first reading in March, and was suspended by Netanyahu, but could be passed at short notice at any time.

The current makeup of the panel features three High Court of Justice judges, two representatives from the Israel Bar Association, two representatives from the government and two representatives from the Knesset, with one of those traditionally being from the coalition and the other from the opposition. Seven of the committee’s nine votes are required to appoint a High Court justice; in practice, this means the coalition and the judiciary must agree on High Court candidates.

Levin has been refusing to convene the Judicial Selection Committee until legislation to remake it is enacted.

The High Court is also set to hear petitions against his delaying tactic in September.

The hardline government’s legislation and planned bills have split the nation and triggered the biggest protest movement in the country’s history.