I: Leonie Ben-Simon is a freelance journalist with an MBA from Monash University, Victoria Australia.
The Deep State's Swan Song?
It seems too complicated for laymen to understand the current crisis between the High Court and the Government. Here it is in simpler form - my version of Israel's Supreme Court for Dummies:
Seeping out from all of the explanations of who has the power, there is something that is trying to bring back the past. The insistence of the High Court that they are running the show rather than the Elected Democratic Government is what is at play, unfortunately in a time of war. This whiff pervading the normal operations of the country is the continuous emergence of the Deep State¹ never coming to terms with the fact that Israel is not run by the Old Guard as it was in the past.
Their main purpose is Regime Change, to be accomplished by toppling the Netanyahu Government and getting rid of the Right, trying to do both as fast as possible. They are of course joined by the Opposition which is the remnant of the former Left-leaning parties with tentacles of helpful individuals such as the Attorney-General.
At the same time, the voter base has changed altogether with different upwardly mobile individuals and groups slowly but surely reaching positions of power in the IDF, the public service and of course in the Government. The population of Israel is indeed changing. The old guard were mostly leftists, still represented in the High Court in this case. They have been dying out for many years whilst statistically they have been replaced and highly outnumbered by a different cohort, many of whom have good reasons to vote right or center-right.
Consider the soldiers, the reservists and their families who are now coming face to face with a cruel enemy, understanding that joining the leftist camp is not the solution even though everyone really wants peace and prays for the arrival of the Mashiach. Not only that but a significant number them come from national religious backgrounds where they naturally belong to the right.
Then there are the new voters who have turned eighteen since the last election in 2022. We are now the third generation after the great Aliyah from Middle Eastern countries, generations who have a good understanding of the mentality of the neighbourhood and are highly educated. Not only that, but the birthrate of this sector has been very high compared to the population who used to form the majority, those who did vote left and whose birthrate has been extremely low, thus not providing new voters.
The Democratically elected Government is standing strong against the efforts of the High Court. It is interesting that the court has chosen a minor matter to try to establish a precedent for the future, however this is just like a snake in its death throes rattling away.
[¹A Deep State is a hidden organization manipulating a democratic state regardless of what the voters in that state have chosen. On the Deep State level, small and large networks of power operate independently of a state’s political leadership in pursuit of their own agenda and goals with ideological objectives different to those of the elected government. Occasionally some of the government leadership is involved.]
II: Dr. Aaron Lerner is head of IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis, since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on Arab-Israeli relations
Act to Amend the Basic Law Instead of a Constitutional Crisis: Revising the “For the Sake of Justice" Clause
What is the crisis about?
The Second Authority is the government body that oversees Israel's commercial television and radio broadcasters. Israeli law requires the council to have a minimum number of members in order to make decisions that are legally binding. The government argues that because the council no longer meets that legal requirement, it has no authority to approve appointments or make other official decisions and wishes to replace it.
However, on June 17, the court ordered the previous government's council to continue even though the number of serving members had fallen below the minimum required by law.
The Israeli cabinet voted unanimously in favour of rejecting the court's ruling, a first. The cabinet said the court had no authority to trample on the law.
This did not have to happen.
Section 15(c) of the 1984 Basic Law: The Judiciary states that the High Court of Justice is authorized to hear “matters in which it deems it necessary to grant relief for the sake of justice."
The law was enacted during the Likud government of Yitzhak Shamir, when Moshe Nissim served as Minister of Justice, and its wording has been considered relatively broad and unusual.
Over the years, this clause has been used as a basis for an expansive interpretation of the High Court’s powers in cases where the Court believed it necessary to grant relief on grounds of justice, even when such authority did not clearly arise from the written legislation itself.
In certain cases, such as the current disputed ruling, this has created situations in which rulings do not conform to the intent of the legislature or to the explicit language of the law or even are in contravention of them.
Therefore, instead of calling for noncompliance with court rulings, the proper course in a democracy is to amend the Basic Law: The Judiciary so that it is explicitly clarified that the authority to grant “relief for the sake of justice" does not permit rulings that contradict the provisions of written law or the intent of the legislature as established in legislation.