There’s something different about this exchange of fire between Netanyahu and the judicial system

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Just when you think that the relationship between the government and the judiciary has hit rock bottom, a new low is set. In an opinion last week, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara declared that Major General David Zini’s appointment as Shin Bet head was unlawful, and that Netanyahu must cede the authority to nominate a replacement to another minister. That’s the closest she’s come yet to declaring the prime minister legally incapacitated from fulfilling his duties.

Netanyahu had announced Zini’s appointment as a calculated act of defiance, in the belief that he would benefit either way. If he did succeed in imposing Zini on the system, it would be a much-needed win in his long running conflict with the judicial branch. Netanuahu assessed that the attorney general would likely fail to derail the nomination even if she tried, on the assumption that Zini won’t be disqualified by the appointments committee on the basis of ethics or character flaws. Netanyahu is still confident that Zini’s nomination will pass the cabinet, even without him.

But even if the High Court does thwart the appointment — and we saw in the Ronen Bar ruling that the court is more than willing to set new precedents at the government’s expense — Netanyahu will benefit with his base. And in his view, the election campaign is already in full swing.

Zini is the archetype of the national-religious voter Netanyahu thinks he can win over. A settler and father of 11 whose opinions aren’t far from those of Smotrich and Ben Gvir, Zini is Netanyahu’s message to the religious Zionist base: I’m on your side, I’m the one promoting your fighters from field positions to senior command positions.

The appointment wasn’t just the filling of a vacancy around the cabinet table — it was the elevation of a provocatively Jewish figure to the head of an organization long dominated by the democratic camp.

Still, there’s something different about this exchange of fire between Netanyahu and the judicial system. In previous rounds, it was Netanyahu who got dragged into showdowns he would have done almost anything to avoid. This time, it was Bibi who made the decision to escalate. First, when he stood at the press conference and defiantly announced his intention to appoint the head of the Shin Bet, and later in the way he went about it, not even putting on the pretense of an orderly process.

Had the real goal been to secure Zini’s appointment, the simplest solution would have been to delegate the task to another minister and not have Netanyahu be the one who puts his nomination to the vote. But even after the attorney general has had her say, Netanyahu continues to stand behind the appointment, making it clear that the appointment will be his and no one else’s. This is what it looks like when a prime minister is trying to steal a march ahead of being declared legally incapacitated.

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TO illustrate how much closer Zini is tied to the Jewish element than to the democratic one: In his role of integrating chareidim into the IDF, Zini has met with a number of top chareidi rabbanim and rebbes over the past year and a half. His predecessors would be briefed in advance and show up ready to listen rather than to talk. The purpose of the visits was to try to realize some early agreements as to the integration of working chareidim into army frameworks.

With Zini, the preparations were nothing like the actual meetings. In that sense, his aides felt like Military Secretary Roman Gofman, who saw Zini conferring with Netanyahu in his car in the thick of the controversy last week. When he asked later what they were talking about, he learned that Zini had entered the prime minister’s car to discuss the chareidi draft matter.

When Zini went in to talk to rabbanim, rebbes, and roshei yeshivah, he was in his element, as someone who sees himself as a warrior scholar. He talked about hashkafah, mixing his words with divrei Torah and connecting with his hosts on the Jewish level as well as the professional one.

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This week, Netanyahu found himself caught between the hammer of Trump and the anvil of his rightist coalition. Even last year’s Jerusalem Day wasn’t so bad — then, Netanyahu’s coalition was stable, which can’t be said this time. Apropos Zini’s nomination, it seems Netanyahu has lost control of his latest appointee, with Eyal Zamir, whom Netanyahu lauded as an attacking chief of general staff, turning his guns on Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yisrael Katz.

This isn’t the first time a Netanyahu appointee has turned on his boss. That’s been true of all his Shin Bet head appointments. And anyone who thinks that Zini’s religious Zionist identity is a guarantee of absolute loyalty just needs to be reminded of Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich, a son of Kiryat Arba once seen as a staunch rightist.

Back to Zamir, his beef with the government is no longer about the chareidi draft, which one could ascribe to the chief of staff’s fear of the Attorney General.

On almost every delicate issue, Bibi is finding himself on the other side of the argument as Zamir. Such was the case last week, with Zamir not even waiting for Motzaei Shabbos to condemn Zini’s nomination.

The leaks from Zamir’s circle — about how he wasn’t briefed, about how Zini wasn’t even interviewed, unless you can count a brief huddle in Bibi’s car — has led the public to perceive Zini’s nomination as rushed, motivated by spite, and unsupported by top defense officials. Gali Baharav-Miara could hardly have hoped for a better background ahead of her legal opinion castigating the prime minister.

The clash continued this week. Defense Minister Katz blocked Military Advocate Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi from appearing at the Israel Bar Association conference in Eilat, on the grounds that her time was better spent at her job duties. Zamir didn’t need to weigh in on Katz’s action — all he had to do was sit down and be quiet. Instead, he chose to back the military advocate, in a direct clash with his superior.

Just as the attorney general lashes out at the chareidim as a proxy for Netanyahu, the chief of general staff attacked the defense minister as a proxy for Bibi. Netanyahu needs to sit down and ask himself — how has he let this happen to him again and again?

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1064)