The Chairman chose the middle path: not to obey, but also not to continue, but to accept personal responsibility and resign • For him, respect for the High Court decision was a cross of a red line • Opinion

In two and a half weeks, Benny Gantz will lose the mandate to form a government he received from the president, with no progress being made in the meantime. Since Rivlin entrusted him with the government train, Gantz has been primarily concerned with taking over the legislature and completely neglecting the primary purpose for which he was mandated.

July Edelstein resigned as Knesset Speaker

If he fails in his mission - and is apparently currently going there - Rivlin will not be able to grant Gantz another two weeks and will have to pass the mandate to Netanyahu. Even if the prime minister does not want to form a government at all and aspires to another election campaign, the president's mandate will only be asked to stop the blue-and-white rampage and the left bloc, which are doing their part in the Knesset.

According to the precedent set by the Knesset Court, together with the mandate for forming a government, the head of the regulating committee is also going through the party of those who received a mandate. My father Nissankorn will replace Miki Zohar, who will block any further attempt to run the Knesset against Netanyahu.

When the High Court decision requiring Yuli Edelstein to convene the plenary to discuss his replacement, he faced two bad choices: disobedience, or compliance. It is unclear which is worse.

On the one hand, it is time for the Legislature to see to the judiciary that the days of the creeping annexation of unlawful powers that they have taken have come to an end. To this end, the Speaker of the Knesset had to announce that he did not intend to respect the High Court's decision and move on. But State Edelstein is considered. Such a behavior is inappropriate for him. He can argue with the judges, criticize them, but always obey them.

But this time there is a second side, just as critical as the first. Respect for the High Court decision this time, as far as Edelstein is concerned, was crossing a red line. Compliance would have created a dangerous precedent for the High Court's takeover of the Knesset completely. Appointing a chairman and any other role in the government and the Knesset is part of the usual political bargaining and debates in the Knesset every day. Coordination of opposition and opposition, parliamentary games, the demonstration of the heads of committees - are an integral part of the political experience.

To that end, there are rules, rules and regulations that regulate power relations accurately. The Knesset knows how to deal with the chairman of a rogue committee that does not want to raise its responsibilities on the agenda, as it knows how to give the Knesset Speaker powers that often overpower most MKs who may sometimes be found out for basketball. Compliance with the High Court this time would have allowed it to be completely restrained. The precedent is incredibly dangerous. Because here and there the meaning is one: the court is running the Hall of Democracy in the state, not the elected officials.

So Edelstein walked the middle way. Not to obey, but also not to continue. Accept personal responsibility and resign. He did not extricate himself from the High Court boots, but probably the Knesset did. At least for now. Edelstein did not believe that the High Court judges would demonstrate such opacity, so he chose to invest quite a bit in answering the composition judges in the petition.

The answer was written for him by two of the leading lawyers in the country. After drafting the answer, which essentially rejects the possibility of the High Court intervening in the political game within the Knesset, see also the document of the Knesset's Eyal Yanun, which admired the depth of thought and the level of arguments.

However, the legal document did not interest the judges' composition at all. From the moment he was sent from the Knesset residence to the Supreme Court, it was only 25 minutes before Yinon's bureau was notified that a 19-page High Court ruling would be adopted within a quarter of an hour. The judges wrote their decision before Edelstein's response arrived. The judges have not long been concerned that justice will be done. Now it is no use in their opinion that they will even look.

The full column - tomorrow at the "Israel this week" supplement.