Supreme Court deputy chief rejects right-wing demand that he back US sanctions on his boss

In a rare public statement, Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg rejects a right-wing campaign calling on him to support US sanctions on the Supreme Court chief justice and on the attorney general.

Prof. Moshe Cohen-Eliya, who appears regularly on the pro-government Channel 14, has been spearheading a public campaign urging Sohlberg — a judicially conservative justice, as opposed to the more activist court president Isaac Amit — to “stand up” to Amit and support US measures against him and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, whom the government considers adversarial to it.

The demand appears to be related to US President Donald Trump’s demand that President Isaac Herzog pardon Netanyahu amid the corruption trial against him.

In response, Sohlberg recalls a historic case in which Israelite brothers who had been competing for the throne asked Roman general Pompey to settle the dispute more than 2,000 years ago, with the latter picking the one seen as more comfortable to the Romans and later leading a conquest of Jerusalem.

“The lesson is, we have the solutions, even if they are difficult. Not others,” Sohlberg says.

“Disagreements are definitely permitted, but President Isaac Amit is not a foe. He’s a friend,” he adds, making a pun as Amit’s surname means “friend” in Hebrew.