Wednesday’s Knesset vote to add MPs to the panel that selects Israel’s judges was one of the most contentious and bizarre in the six months that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has been in power.
Pundits condemned the event as a Netanyahu failure after at least four coalition members defected to put opposition MP Karine Elharrar on the judiciary selection committee, defying Netanyahu’s orders that both Elharrar and his own Likud party MP Tally Gotliv, torpedo and allow a full vote -overrun within 30 days.
A surprising result of Wednesday’s secret ballot, however, is that it may have bailed him out of a political vice as he has struggled to balance pressure for and against his government’s plan to limit judicial scrutiny of political power.
Ultimately, the outcome of the vote, and the opposition’s reaction to it, could prove to be an excuse for the prime minister to push for enough changes to bring “reforms” to the streets, but on issues that miss the heart of the concerns of the opposition and protest movement – and possibly the worst of her anger.
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Although Netanyahu didn’t create the situation himself, he took advantage of the cards he was dealt and found a way to play them in his favour. Netanyahu tried to get his coalition to elect Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer alongside Elharrar, but just before the vote it became clear that Gotliv was refusing to remove her name from the vote, jeopardizing his plan.
Enough coalition MPs wanted to grab both seats on the Judicial Selection Committee so that Gotliv’s election would be possible if she stayed on the ballot alongside Kroizer. But the opposition parties had made it clear that they would break off negotiations on a compromise judicial reform if they did not get a representative, as is usual.
The Likud had promised Otzma Yehudit a seat on the panel as part of the far-right party’s inclusion in the hard-line coalition, leaving its leader in a quandary, unable to report the results of a closed vote ensure.
Likud MP Tally Gotliv casts her ballot for candidates for the Judiciary Selection Committee in the Knesset on June 14, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In the end, Kroizer was persuaded to withdraw his nomination and Netanyahu instructed the coalition to soften the vote and reject both candidates, triggering a 30-day delay. However, not everyone listened. And then the opposition leaders gave him exactly the political cover he needed.
Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid and National Unity’s Benny Gantz issued a joint statement shortly after Elharrar’s election, saying they were calling off talks because Netanyahu’s efforts to delay the vote had broken and shown a promise made to them that he was dishonest, and because his actions had prevented the panel from convening and resuming its work for the time being impossible (party MPs went on the air Thursday to clarify the move was only a “pause” until the Judge Selection Committee convenes).
Justice Minister Yariv Levin is said to have threatened not to convene the panel in its current form at all, as he first wants the highly controversial law to be passed to reshape the committee to give the coalition full control over judge selection.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) and Justice Minister Yariv Levin arrive to vote on the judge selection panel in the Knesset, June 14, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Lapid and Gantz have faced significant pressure from other opposition parties and the 23-week strong anti-justice reform protest movement, who say the negotiations have been a fig leaf on the coalition’s intention to eventually push through unilateral changes.
When the opposition broke off talks, Netanyahu seized the opportunity with both hands, accusing it of frustrating the negotiations.
“Today it finally became clear that Gantz and Lapid were looking for a way to blast the talks,” Netanyahu said in a video statement Wednesday night, his first public statements after the vote.
Netanyahu claimed that opposition figures “rejected every proposal from the coalition – even the most limited”. “Gantz and Lapid don’t want real negotiations,” he accused. “I promise you that unlike you, we will act responsibly for our country.”
Perhaps this sentence had more meaning than mere political blame.
Netanyahu’s balancing act
Anger within the coalition over the voting results and the reaction of the opposition culminated in several calls for Netanyahu to release the reform package from the current deadlock.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called on Netanyahu and Levin to “put the bill amending the Judiciary Selection Committee for a second and second reading vote.” Reform now.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaks during a rally in support of the government’s proposed judicial reform June 1, 2023 in Tel Aviv. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Ultranationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose Religious Zionism party was actively involved in implementing the reform laws, reiterated that the coalition was ready to impose unilateral measures.
“We are keen to legislate by consensus, but if the opposition thwarts the talks at the President’s residence, we will legislate independently, in line with the clear mandate we received from a large majority of the Israeli public in the last election .” said Smotrich.
“The opposition’s threats to unilaterally blast talks at the President’s house are showing their true colors,” he added. “There is no way we will agree to freeze the core of the reform.”
Similar voices were heard within the Likud party, including from Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar, a Netanyahu supporter, who said if talks stalled, the coalition must now push through the reform.
Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar in his office in Jerusalem, January 2, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“The opposition had not come to the negotiations at the President’s residence in good faith from the first moment, and today we received evidence of this,” he said.
On the other side of the equation, Netanyahu struggled with a heated six-month-long mass protest movement, a vacillating shekel reacting violently to the possibility of further instability, and at least four of his own MPs stepping out of line to vote for Elharrar.
According to analysts, the latter raises doubts that the coalition even has the necessary votes to adopt the more extreme goals of the reform.
A possible way forward
Last month, leaks from the president’s residence scripted how Netanyahu might proceed: by passing more limited, less divisive aspects of the reform plan. Specifically, it is legislation designed to limit judicial review of government decisions to their “reasonableness” and allow the government to choose its own legal representatives, rather than relying on the Attorney General’s Office to intercede on its behalf.
Both ideas were floated and met with only moderate public opposition compared to Levin’s central goal of giving the government a structural advantage on the judiciary and giving the Knesset the power to bypass any court decision to reject bills.
Moreover, coalition negotiators have claimed that behind closed doors the opposition agreed in principle to these points – although Yesh Atid and National Unity vehemently deny this. The opposition has insisted it will only agree to a full package of reforms that will suspend all issues and demands – or none at all.
Yesh Atid chief MK Yair Lapid (left) and National Unity Chairman Benny Gantz at the Knesset in Jerusalem, February 20, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In fact, Netanyahu is said to have considered abandoning the two seemingly easier issues and pushing them forward, hoping that the opposition would not fight him so fiercely on points on which they would eventually be willing to make concessions.
Such a path could allow Netanyahu to present a small victory to his reform-hungry base, and at a lower cost to the general public. Presumably he could do so now, assuming it was the opposition who withdrew from the talks – even if they did so out of legitimate fear that Elharrar’s election would be a Pyrrhic victory over a dysfunctional committee.
It’s still likely that protesters will pour into the streets and accuse Netanyahu of cutting off only the first part of a “salami”-style step-by-step legislative strategy. However, it remains to be seen whether organizers can muster the kind of support they received at the height of the demonstrations in response to smaller actions.
And for a prime minister struggling with hesitant global investors, terrified rating agencies and diplomatic criticism, passing these second-rate issues would offer Netanyahu a chance to turn to the world and say, “I told you so” — what the actual changes made to Israeli law do not do justice to criticism of the undermining of the rule of law and the threat to democracy.