(IsraelNN.com) Justice Minister Yaakov Ne’eman informed the government this morning that he has made his choice for Israel’s next Attorney General: Attorney Yehuda Weinstein.

The choice was made from among the four candidates proposed by a special search committee headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Theodore Orr. The five-man committee could not come up with a single name that received the required four votes, but gave three votes each to Attorneys Weinstein and Tzvi Agmon, as well as Profs. Yedidyah Stern and Dafna Barak-Erez.

Far From Left
Though the favored nationalist-camp candidate, Judge Noam Solberg, did not advance to the final round, Weinstein was the only one of the four final candidates who was supported by the “nationalist” members of the search committee.  He is “as far from the Left as east is from west,” according to prominent attorney Yoram Sheftel, and “does not share the legal establishment's view that everything is adjudicative.”

Ne’eman's nod to Weinstein, which must be voted on and approved by the entire Cabinet, was given after perusing the material collected by the search committee and other material, and meeting with each of the candidates – except for Barak-Erez, who is in the U.S., with whom he held a video conference.

Ne’eman announced that all four, “including Stern, who withdrew his candidacy, are worthy to serve in the position.” He announced, however, that he became convinced that Weinstein was the “best choice for the job at this time, in which there is a real need to strengthen the rule of law and enforcement and fight crime. This, because of his very rich experience in a broad range of judicial areas, both in public service and private practice.”

Weinstein was born in Tel Aviv in 1944, and is married and father of three. He worked for seven years in the Central District Prosecution Bureau, and opened a private practice in 1979. Specializing in representing clients accused of white-collar crime, his office has represented the late President Ezer Weizmann, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, ex-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Knesset Members, and others.