In a process riddled with irregularities, the committee assigned to choose candidates for the position of Attorney General failed to choose even one – but Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu plans to have the government choose from among the also-rans.

The five-man committee, headed by former Supreme Court Justice Theodore Orr, was supposed to choose from among 11 candidates. Whosoever among them received at least four votes of approval was to be presented to the government ministers, who would choose one as the new Attorney General. The incumbent, Menachem Mazuz, is to leave the position at the end of January, ten weeks from now.

In the event, however, not one of the 11 candidates received at least four votes. The committee, reporting on its failure to Netanyahu, deviated from its mandate by listing the four candidates who received the highest number of votes – and Netanyahu said he would present those four names for the Cabinet’s consideration.

Livnat and Erdan Object

At least two government ministers said this was not acceptable. Limor Livnat said additional candidates must be presented, and Gilad Erdan said that the Cabinet must be permitted to vote on all 11 of the original candidates.

Justice Minister Yaakov Ne’eman said that though he had asked the committee to keep a protocol of its proceedings, it did not do so.

Nationalist Choice Disqualified

The most controversial non-choice among the 11 candidates is Jerusalem District Court Justice Noam Solberg, who did not receive even four votes. An observant Jew who lives in Judea (Alon Shvut), Solberg was the favored candidate of the nationalist camp – and appears to have been disqualified for exactly that reason.

The four candidates currently before the government are:

  • Attorney Yehuda Weinstein, former Central District Prosecutor. He once represented Netanyahu, and is currently one of ex-Prime Minister Olmert’s lawyers.  He is the only one of the four who was supported by the “nationalist” members of the committee.
  • Attorney Tzvi Agmon, a former law partner of former Supreme Court Justice Mishael Heshin
  • Prof. Yedidya Stern, former head of Bar Ilan University’s Law Department.
  • Prof. Dafna Barak-Erez of Tel Aviv University.

Ex-Justice Orr's Conflicts of Interest

Chairman Orr reportedly had significant conflicts of interest with one of the final four candidates, and with one of the other candidates. Not only did Orr not report that he is a personal friend of Agmon, he also did not report that he had once paid Agmon hundreds of thousands of shekels to promote his candidacy to head various committees and/or to serve as arbitrator.

Nor did Orr investigate a complaint filed with the Attorney General regarding alleged criminal activities perpetrated by Agmon.

In addition, Orr presented the candidacy of Courts Administrator Moshe Gal without reporting that Gal hired Orr’s wife, without a tender, to work in the court system’s computerization project.  In addition, Orr did not report that Gal – one of his three preferred candidates – is taking personal charge of a large damages suit filed against the Court System Management and against Orr’s wife.

It is not yet clear whether the pressure from the ministers who are demanding more candidates, and from the media covering the irregularities in the candidate selection process, will cause Netanyahu to nominate additional candidates for the pivotal and sensitive position of Attorney General.