Many months ago, well before the rhetoric reached the stratosphere, it was pretty much commonly accepted by the few actually following judicial reform (and not just the protests on the news) that the courts would easily come up with a work-around if the Knesset passed legislation barring rulings based on "reasonableness."
The reasonableness standard allows the court to rule against the validity of elected official's decisions that in a justice's personal opinion are beyond the scope of what a reasonable authority would undertake.
In other countries where it exists, it is brought out to be used in extreme cases. In Israel, it became the subjective norm under former Chief Justice Aharon Barak, but will defining its limitations make a difference?
In point of fact, the "Words of Explanation" which accompanied Basic Law: The Judiciary (Amendment No. 5) (reasonableness) in the First Reading concludes by noting that " ....It should be pointed out that there is nothing is what is said to limit the authority of the court to hear or issue an order due to other reasons for the review , including the reason of proportionality."
We find ourselves with a kind of Four Sons:
1. Wise - knows that the amendment is of no significance in terms of impacting the actual performance of the courts.
2. Wicked - knows that the amendment is of no significance in terms of impacting the actual performance of the courts BUT for the purposes of their agenda claim its impact on Israeli democracy would be catastrophic.
3. Simple - honestly clueless themselves and relying on what the wicked sons say.
4. I don't know if the rest don't know how to ask. My guess is that despite the unprecedented publicity budget (it seems that an advertisement against judicial reform pops up from every website and social media app) and the inconvenience that a bunch of people screaming D E M O C R A T I Y A ! could
block your car, that there are a lot of Israelis who aren't following this at all.
I want to be clear: just because someone knows how to pilot an F-35 or perform brain surgery doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't in the simple son category when it comes to this legislation. Its not the same skill set.
When Netanyahu opted to start and possibly end with "Reasonableness" I thought that we all might be pawns in a scheme to be able to claim that judicial reform was passed without any true judicial reform.
Netanyahu would show that the "elite extortionists" cannot stop the democratic process in the Knesset while the campaign against judicial reform fizzles out in the absence of additional legislative action.
But there are so many wicked sons out there right now with agendas far behind the narrow issue of judicial reform that I just don't know.
So I am losing a lot of sleep thinking about the Israeli animated historical drama film "Legend of Destruction" which follows how different groups of Jews, all convinced that they were doing the right thing, brought about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple.
Dr. Aaron Lerner heads IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis, which since 1992 provides news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on Arab-Israeli relations