‘We’re tearing the country apart’: Some in cabinet uneasy with renewed overhaul blitz
Far-right takes Netanyahu captive, tells him future of right-wing depends on passing ‘reasonableness’ law; anonymous minister voices misgivings about bashing of judicial officials
Shalom Yerushalmi is the political analyst for Zman Israel, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew current affairs website
Anyone who was present at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, as members of the government took turns assailing justice officials, could see that the far-right was leading the discourse, sidelining anybody so much as considering seeking broad consensus or negotiations on the judicial overhaul — the prime minister included.
Leading the pack once again was Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the man who had sought that special discussion on the state of enforcement against anti-government protests, specifically the ministers’ accusations that police were failing to properly enforce the law against rowdy demonstrators.
Levin gave a lengthy monologue at the meeting — essentially a concerted attack on Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who was in the room, and on the leadership of the state prosecution. Other right-wing ministers enthusiastically joined the pile-on, marring Netanyahu’s efforts to paint the meeting as a dignified affair.
The extraordinary episode, featuring raucous discourse much of which leaked to the press, served only to escalate the swelling confrontation between the government and the justice system, with the country already at a boiling point on the government’s efforts to overhaul and weaken the judiciary.
“In the middle of the cabinet meeting, I thought to myself, ‘What am I doing here?’ Even though I agreed with Yariv Levin,” one minister told The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site Zman Yisrael. “I said to myself, ‘Yes, there is selective enforcement going on and all that, but we’re sitting here and tearing the country apart with our own hands, and I’m a senior partner to that.'”
One person who emerged jubilant from the session was National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Over the weekend, a rumor spread that Ben Gvir, head of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, had recently conferred with rabbis on whether to remain in this government. Ben Gvir denied it. Ben Gvir, who views the removal of Tel Aviv District police chief Amichai Eshed last week — setting off mass protests — as a major achievement, said the discussion on Sunday was excellent and that the government was on a positive path.
The clash between the cabinet and the attorney general saw a number of ministers suggest, not for the first time, that Baharav-Miara should be fired, as well as rumblings that Netanyahu had himself told ministers he would consider the matter, though he denies this.
But Baharav-Miara will not be removed. The prime minister and senior officials in his office agree on this. Netanyahu knows that firing the attorney general would set the streets on fire, possibly to a far greater extent than when protests exploded over his later-reversed decision in March to remove Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, after the latter warned against proceeding with the overhaul as it stood then. For the government’s opponents, Baharav-Miara is seen as one of the last bastions of democratic propriety still standing.
Besides, the Prime Minister’s Office has looked into the matter and found that removing the attorney general would entail a lengthy and cumbersome process, which requires convening the vetting committee that appointed her, soliciting a position paper, involving the justice minister and more. No one has time for that now.
On Monday, the Knesset is set to vote on the contentious bill to curtail judicial review of the “reasonableness” of elected officials’ decisions, in the first of its three readings. The legislation has become a cause celebre for overhaul opponents, and protesters have threatened to shut the country down with demonstrations.
If it were up to Netanyahu, he’d kick the reasonableness bill down the road to a winter session two years hence, along with the rest of the overhaul. But Netanyahu is captive to powerful forces in Likud and other coalition parties. His inner circle also holds militant positions on the matter, telling him recently that the fate of the right for generations is dependent on passing the bill.
One of Netanyahu’s associates told Zman Israel on Sunday: “If the right does not pass limitations on reasonableness in the next two weeks, in their lightest form; if we break now, in the middle of the process — it’s over for us. We won’t be back in power even in 20 years’ time. Most of our ministers think so.”
The bill is expected to easily pass its first reading on the Knesset floor in a broad form eliminating the court’s ability to test the reasonableness of decisions made by politicians – possibly including city officials. Ahead of the second and third readings, it is expected to be tamped down so that only the prime minister and ministers will not be bound by the reasonableness test.
Netanyahu hopes in that manner to limit the scope of the national protests. The odds of that seem low.
The Times of Israel Community.