“I believe that the expulsion of Arab terrorists’ families to Gaza will significantly reduce the terror activity against the State of Israel, its citizens, and its residents,” the prime minister explained – and requested the attorney general’s legal opinion.
Channel 2’s legal commentator, Moshe Negbi, immediately explained that this step violates international law, the Geneva Convention, and Israeli law. Negbi’s position is not surprising. In the past he supported civil war if Israel expelled Arabs. (What is strange here is that the people who pay the price in blood for his political stance are the same people who pay his salary at Public Broadcasting). An array of military and civilian judicial experts jumped on Negbi’s bandwagon – at which point it became clear that the high court would not allow the government to take this obvious step to prevent the murders in our streets.
About two weeks ago, in an answer to a petition served by the “Regavim” movement, which demanded the destruction of all the illegal Arab housing that the European Union is building in areas of Judea and Samaria under full Israeli control, High Court Justice Meni Mazuz angrily replied that “the law is not the entire picture. There are also political considerations.” So there are considerations that are above the law, after all. Hmm…
When policies dovetail with the high court’s worldview, “the law is not the entire picture.” But when it is about saving lives, the entire senior legal echelon bows down to the law.
In truth, though, the problem is not the “Rule of Law Gang” (a definition created by President Ruby Rivlin, after his appointment as justice minister was invalidated.) The problem is the prime minister. It is the prime minister’s job to protect his nation. It is the attorney general’s job to protect the prime minister. In other words, if the prime minister thinks that the expulsion of families of terrorists to Gaza will save lives, he should have done that yesterday. Why on earth is he sending highly publicized letters to the attorney general? If he thinks it will save lives, it is his duty and obligation to do so immediately. And the attorney general’s duty is to have his back.
The attorney general, Mandelblit, does not have to authorize or recommend. Mandelblit has to do exactly what Justice Mazuz did when he felt that the law was irrelevant. Mandelblit must find the international precedents and explain why, in this case, the “law is not the entire picture…” He has to explain that we are in a state of war and create the insulation to protect the prime minister. If need be, he must initiate a legislative change. If he is incapable of doing this, the prime minister must replace him (and if need be, change the law to allow for the replacement).
In Israel, though, everything is upside down. The prime minister is the functionary and the attorney general rules. That is very convenient for the prime minister. Do you really think that Netanyahu didn’t know what answer he would receive from the attorney general? But now, the Right will not blame the prime minister. Instead, it will blame the “Rule of Law Gang”. A perfect arrangement…
Netanyahu protects the “rule of law” and allows it to clone itself and appoint its own successors without public input (because the law is not the entire picture) to the most important positions in the country. Netanyahu allowed Shai Nitzan to be appointed as state attorney. There were no other candidates. And with the same method – again with no other candidate – Netanyahu allowed the appointment of the attorney general, who has already proven his subservience to the “rule of law”. (Is it any surprise that Mandelblit hurried to close the case against Ruth David, a very senior former Tel Aviv District Attorney?)
In exchange for protecting the hegemony of “the rule of law,” the Rule of Law Gang allows Netanyahu to remain in his job without too much disturbance. The Right votes for Netanyahu and blames the “Gang.” The “Gang” is unmoved, because it appoints itself and couldn’t care less about the voters, and everybody is happy. The Right is in power, the Left has its hegemony and the Arabs have their knives.
The sun shone,
The method bloomed
And the slaughterer slaughtered.
(Chaim Nachman Bialik after the Kischinev pogroms)