"When it comes to a transitional government, there is a need for restraint, and yet, as soon as the government turns and asks for something ... we will look at the legal side. The transitional government also has urgent things to do. We'll see what urgency is, and we will have to give reasons for urgency, and on that basis we will make decisions." . Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said this at the National Security Research Institute conference, in response to Col. (Res.) Adv. Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, regarding government decisions to implement the centenary plan.

In his remarks, Mandelblit also referred to a committee report led by Judge Shamgar, which dealt with the status of the High Court. What he forgot to note is that in the report of Judge Shamgar, the position of the Agranat Committee was explicitly stated, which the government may not act upon, according to the counsel. The Shamgar committee also added that a state authority may choose to implement its policy not in accordance with the competent legal advice, and it is clear to all that it does so. How can the Shamgar Report be cited, and yet argue that the decision on the most important political question brought in recent decades by the Israeli government will depend on the request to be forwarded to the Attorney General, the reasons attached to it and the decision of Attorney Mandelblit?

The answer, of course, is that the intoxication of power held by the Yisrael institution stems from the consultant's multiple duties and the absence of any supervision and control over his activities. Prof. Shlomo Avineri, Israel Prize laureate in political science, once wrote that the personality with the broadest authority in the democratic world is not the president of the United States. Or the president of France, but the attorney general of the Israeli government. The omnipotent counsel, who allowed himself to indict the prime minister on the day he was abroad at a political summit, believes he can consider the government's request in the evening and decide if he allows it Make policy decisions.

Still, it would not be fair to lay the blame for judicial imperialism on the shoulders of the USSR alone. Prime Minister Netanyahu refrained from splitting the Attorney General's role on the occasion when he was appointed, with eight Mandelblit in office. Even today, and although there is no doubt in the legal situation, and the government may make a decision to apply sovereignty, the argument was made that the decision would not be put on the government table on Sunday that the USSR should prepare for it. If the elected government and Knesset grant the power to block political processes to an unelected body and transmit The government, outsourced to the jurists, has no justification for the crocodile's tears for lost governance and democracy.

The expectation of all government ministers should be clear and sharp. If Trump's century plan and the application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria seem like a proper and desirable political step, you have the authority to decide. Although the law does not require it, one can of course think of the decision of the Knesset plenum to give it proper solemnity and vaccinate it against possible interference by the Supreme Court, but the real remedy for the rule of law lies in the courage of elected officials to lead and lead. Renewed at the polls, we as a public must demand accountability for the use they will make of the power they receive from us, and not allow them to renounce their obligation and responsibility to govern.

Attorney Simcha Rothman is the legal counsel for the governorship movement