MK Atty. Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionist Party responds to Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s claim that he and the right are trying to destroy the legal and judicial system in Israel by saying that the allegation is simply political opportunism.

“The debate between conservative and activist judges is all over the world. It’s not something unique to Israel,” Rothman says. “What’s also not unique to the State of Israel is there are some political players who are just plain opportunists – when the justice system is on their side, they are the defenders and the second there is a ruling they don’t like, they attack the justice system using harsh words. Lapid himself said that the justice system [had been subjected to a] ‘hostile takeover’ when he was the finance minister in 2014 and there was a decision he did not like.”

“I am all for a debate between conservative and activist jurists. I am not for opportunists and political debate that is actually very dependent on where you stand today and not real debate,” he adds.

“Gideon Sa’ar and Yair Lapid are in the same spot. They don’t want to reform the justice system, reforms that they know are much needed, because of their political position today. They are just plain political opportunists.”

What are the first and most important changes he intends to implement when he comes into power?

He says that the appointment mechanism for judges, which he comments is unlike other democratic countries, needs to be changed.

“Israel is the only country where sitting Supreme Court judges have vetos over who will join the court,” he explains. “We don’t choose our judges by the legislators or the executive but by some strange committee that the elected officials are a minority on.”

He explains that as a member of the committee, he sees how the elected officials on the committee have “limited” powers.

He also wants to reform the attorney general’s office.

“There is no other country in the world where someone who is unelected holds so much power. He holds more power in Israel than the president of the United States,” Rothman says.

He adds, “You have to have the override or notwithstanding clause, saying that the final word on legislation must be with the legislators and not with the Supreme Court, because Israel does not have a constitution. You can’t have an unelected, unaccountable court decide what will be the law of the country. You have to have a democratic way of making this decision.”

The Religious Zionist Party is trying to win over the support of the Anglo community in Israel.

“The Anglo community in Israel, especially today, lost a party. We know that many people from the Anglo community supported Yamina before and the right wing Anglo know what has been done with their vote, they are not happy with it. They are looking for a home. The Religious Zionist Party can be their home, and we had a candidate Rabbi David Fine that speaks [native] English. He ran in our primaries, he’s part of the party, he also wants to reach out to the Anglo community to show them that the Religious Zionist Party can be their home. I worked on that in the past Knesset and I hope to work on it in the next Knesset.”

In terms of the upcoming elections, Rothman is optimistic about his party’s chances.

“I’m optimistic. I don’t know about the results of the elections but I know we have G-d from above helping us for many years in the State of Israel. Elections come and elections go but we stay here and we need to succeed in keeping Israel strong, keeping Israel successful, keeping Israel a Jewish homeland for the Jewish people. This is our goal for the years to come and also for the next election.”