The identity of the next High Court president will directly impact the makeup of the October 7 commission of inquiry

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The half-accidental rescue of Bedouin-Israeli Farhan Qadi from a Gaza tunnel, and his complimentary phone call with Netanyahu, whom he addressed as “Abu Yair,” moments after describing himself as Palestinian rather than Israeli, couldn’t help but make one smile during an Av that otherwise felt like the Yamim Noraim. Israel as a whole has been going through a ten-month manic-depressive episode. Indeed, just one week ago, Israel seemed headed for an escalation that might have sealed the hostages’ fates.

Only in Israel of 2024 is a threatening headline proclaiming the outbreak of war in the north followed in less than a day by an equally loud headline about the judicial reform’s return to center stage.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir lobbed the first grenade by announcing the promotion of police officer Meir Suissa, who was indicted for throwing a stun grenade at anti-judicial reform protesters in the summer of 2023, to the rank of chief superintendent, leading the attorney general to immediately strike down the promotion.

Next up was Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who last Monday submitted a compromise proposal to resolve his standoff with the judiciary regarding the election of the next High Court president and the filling of several vacancies on the Court. The proposal — electing the conservative justice Yosef Elron as High Court president for a year before he retires in favor of a liberal justice, as well as splitting the Court’s three vacancies between the elected and the judicial branch — was rejected by acting High Court president Uzi Vogelman in the manner and tone of someone who doesn’t think he needs to compromise.

The identity of the next High Court president will directly impact the makeup of the October 7 commission of inquiry, per Israel’s State Commissions of Inquiry Law, which tasks the High Court president with appointing the members of such commissions.

Everything is politics, even in the judicial arena. Tell me who the High Court president is, and I’ll tell you what the commission of inquiry will find.

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“IFthe High Court forces me to convene the Judicial Selection Committee, I’ll do it at Sde Teiman [where the Nukhba terrorists are incarcerated],” the justice minister reportedly fumed after the rejection of his compromise proposal.

Levin has been accused of rashness, but no one has ever suspected him of naivete. The justice minister was fully aware that his proposal would be rejected, but offering it gave him renewed legitimacy in the right-wing camp to resume his push for judicial reform.

Chareidi representatives, who had been trying to hold a dialogue with the attorney general, were wringing their hands this week. “The first phase of the reform cost us the draft, and this time it will cost us the day care subsidies.”

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s decision to delay the suspension of day care subsidies by only three months is little more than mockery. In a week that saw the judicial reform battle reopen, her hostile response was as expected as the ruling barring Aryeh Deri from serving in government a day before Yariv Levin’s press conference announcing the judicial reform last year.

Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur’s request of the attorney general to allow him to use private counsel to petition against the day care decision was unavoidable, as was the negative reply. But the truth has to be said. Even before Levin reopened the battle, expectations of Mrs. Baharav-Miara weren’t high.

As in Gaza, even the most feverish negotiations can’t produce a result as long as at least one side wants to continue fighting.

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Zion Amir, a leading Israeli attorney who has represented a string of high-profile clients over the past decade, is now at the epicenter of the legal showdown between the Israeli government and the judiciary. He’s privately representing Justice Minister Yariv Levin, whose position regarding the appointment of the next High Court president the attorney general wasn’t willing to defend.

I asked him if he wasn’t afraid for his career, representing the government at a time like this under these circumstances.

“Not at all,” Amir replied. “We’re professionals first and foremost. I’m providing a legal service to a client, just like any other service and every other client. Anyone who would shrink from that isn’t fulfilling his function and should find another profession.”

I reminded Amir how chareidi MKs went from office to office in the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv looking for an lawyer to represent them at the High Court regarding the draft. After every top attorney in the field of administrative law turned them away, they had to get a one from the real estate field.

I then asked Amir what chance chareidi women deprived of day care subsidies have of getting a fair hearing from the High Court in the current climate.

“The chances aren’t good,” he admitted. “It’s not a healthy situation when the attorney general refuses to defend the government’s position. I can imagine a few extreme scenarios in which the attorney general’s conscience wouldn’t permit her to represent a particular position. But this should be extremely rare, reserved for exceptional cases. The issue of chareidi education and day care subsidies doesn’t seem to me to belong in that category.”

I asked him what Levin’s options are, with the deck stacked against him.

“The High Court has already expressed its view that it will order the justice minister to convene the Judicial Selection Committee,” Amir responded. “Under those circumstances, the minister will obey the ruling, despite the fact that he doesn’t accept their authority, and bring Justice Elron’s candidacy to the committee’s vote, whatever the result.”

Attorney Amir believes the High Court justices have a conflict of interest in the case: “I don’t think it’s appropriate. Everyone understands that to go to a vote in a situation where the justices have a conflict of interest is not a normal situation. You can’t deliberate on an issue that concerns your status.”

Zion Amir’s words, diplomatic as they are, reflect the growing frustration in the right-wing camp. The resurrected judicial reform died a second time within a week, and it now seems that the government won’t even able to preside over the official October 7 commemoration ceremony. Transportation Minister Miri Regev finds herself humiliatingly chasing after Israeli performers who are refusing to perform for pay at the government’s official commemoration ceremony.

The Yamim Noraim have come early in Israel, and it seems there’s no need for any ceremony, official or otherwise, to be stricken with melancholy every morning upon scanning the headlines. On Rosh Chodesh Elul 5784, we hope and daven for a new year full of rachamei Shamayim and not middas hadin.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1027)