On June 2, 2021, half an hour before the expiration of the mandate, Yair Lapid informed then-President Reuven Rivlin that he had succeeded in forming a government.
The hectic negotiations were successful, paving the way for the formation of the Bennett-Lapid government.
In the days leading up to Lapid's announcement, contacts were held between the parties, when from time to time an issue arose from one of the parties that threatened to blow up the negotiations. One of them was the battle over the Judicial Appointments Committee.
reminder.
Ayelet Shaked was Minister of Justice for four years and undertook to change the face of the Israeli legal system.
Among other things, she boasted that in her kosher days a number of Supreme Court justices were appointed who are considered conservative and right-wing.
Therefore, when the negotiations for the formation of the government took place, Shaked demanded to be appointed a member of the Judicial Appointments Committee, even though in the governmental partition the right-wing side and a new hope had already received a representative - Justice Minister Saar, while the other minister in the committee had to be the left bloc representative.
Shaked issued an ultimatum - either a member of the Judicial Appointments Committee or no government.
Lapid flexed his muscles, even at work they said there was nothing to talk about, but in the end Shaked succeeded and was appointed the second government representative on the committee.
Shaked did not just insist.
She, too, knew that in the first year of her tenure in office four new Supreme Court justices were to be appointed, and she wanted to be a partner in their election to maintain a distinctly conservative representation vis-à-vis the activist side of the justices and the Bar Association.
Made muscles.
Yair Lapid (Archive), Photo: Gideon Markovich
In her insistence, Shaked created the following situation in the committee: three representatives of judges, two representatives of the Bar Association, and four politicians - Ministers Saar and Shaked, and MKs Rotman and Wright.
Apparently, this composition has three representatives from the conservative right - Saar, Shaked and Rotman.
By law, to appoint a Supreme Court judge requires the consent of seven members, so that in the current state of affairs the right-wing conservative bloc in the committee had a blocking bloc.
But now, it seems, Justice Minister Saar has decided to break the right-wing bloc and join the activist bloc part.
If there are no surprises, the committee is expected to approve the appointments of four new judges to the Supreme Court early next week - Ruth Ronen, Khaled Kabov, Gila Kanfei-Steinitz and Yehiel Kasher.
Kabub and Ronen are candidates for the Supreme Court, and are considered ultra-liberal.
Kanfei-Steinitz and Kosher are representatives of Saar and the Bar Association, and they are not clearly identified with either party.
Saar's agreement to appoint the four actually gives a big victory to the liberal-activist side, and determines what the Supreme Court will look like in the coming years.
Ayelet Shaked, the one who at least ostensibly gained muscle at the time of the formation of the government and demanded her place on the committee, became irrelevant.
She can now vote for or against these appointments, but her vote does not determine anything.
Shaked may have managed in the past to bring in judges as she wanted and influence the top panel, but this time she is failing.
Of course the first culprit in breaking the right-wing bloc in the committee is Saar, who decided to act without coordination with his friends, but Shaked cannot absolve herself of responsibility.
The flag she waved for years, the election promise (sorry I wrote this) to fight for balance at the top under the "High Court" campaign, has completely dissolved. If Shaked has the courage, she must understand that this is the moment of truth. She needs to put him back in place now - if she does not have the ability to influence the choice of judges to dissolve this partnership.
Minister of Justice Gideon Saar,
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