“Who cares if she’s beautiful? Ayelet Shaked is dangerous,” was the title of a May 14, 2015 article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “The Daily Beast,” headlined another one as “The Scariest Politician in Israel.” “Foreign Policy magazine trying to be more subtle titled its article “Ayelet Shaked makes Benjamin Netanyahu look like a liberal. And now she’s the justice minister.”
In fact the 39 years old, in what the New York Times has called “the most contentious appointment in a much-criticized new government,” commented in an interview that “…the biggest shock of public life was the volume of the hatred,” she encountered.
Mrs. Shaked, who was elected to the Knesset in 2013, earned her reputation, as a “diligent and ambitious politician, who has strongly criticized the existing laws and legal establishment.”
Once a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party, she changed affiliations because she felt that “every leader takes the Likud to the left.”
“Wanting to belong to a party “to the right of Netanyahu, one that is based on the Bible and Jewish values, “ she helped in 2012, to plot Naftali Bennett’s coup to turn the old National-Religious Party into “the Jewish Home.”
Recognized as the party polemicist she argues that democracy is a “form of government rather than a central component of the state.” She opposes decisions she considers not to be determined by the people but by the members of the judiciary.
“Those opposed to this blurring of powers,” she says, “and I am of course included, are being defined as ‘the sons of darkness,’ while those who support depriving the right of the public to make decisions through their Knesset representatives are called ‘sons of light.'”
In her commitment “to strengthen the Jewish identity” of Israel, “to have a democratic, Jewish, strong state,” she comes to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government with a large agenda:
- Curtailing the power of the Supreme Court,
- Giving politicians more sway over judicial appointments
- Ousting Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers.
- Reestablishment of a department in charge of Jewish identity in the schools.
- Push a “nationality bill” that would enshrine Israel as a legally Jewish state.
- Limiting the foreign funding of advocacy groups
- Annexation of some of the disputed West Bank lands.
Moshe Negbi, the legal analyst at Israel Radio explained the challenges Mrs. Shaked faces:
“Many people think, and Ayelet Shaked also in good faith thinks, that because she was chosen by the majority, the courts need to obey her.” “What she doesn’t understand is that democracy also fights against the tyranny of the majority, which is only possible with a judicial system and an attorney general which are independent.”
In fact Mrs. Shaked position regarding the Supreme Court, for instance, are not new: Professor Daniel Friedman, who attended Harvard Law School and was Israel’s justice minister from 2007 to 2009, shared many of Mrs. Shaked’s views regarding the justice system, yet the judicial selection process hasn’t changed much. Besides, professor Friedman had the support of the prime minister something Mrs. Shaked probably doesn’t have.
Mrs. Shaked who never thought she would be appointed Justice Minister, got the post as part of a desperate last-minute deal that saved Mr. Netanyahu from not meeting the deadline to form his new government.
According to Mazal Mualem, the former senior political correspondent for the Maariv and Haaretz newspapers, “Netanyahu never imagined being forced to hand Shaked the Justice Ministry.” In fact Mrs. Mualem says that Ayelet Shaked’s appointment is so hard for Netanyahu that he could not hide his disdain, completely ignoring her after the swearing ceremony not even deigning to shake her hand, all in front of the cameras.
In an article headlined “There is very little Shaked can do in the Justice Ministry,” Nahum Barnea- voted one of the most influential journalists in Israel- points out that Mrs. Shaked needs the support of Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon who in his agreement to form part of the Prime Minister’s coalition, has a veto right. Then she will have to discuss her proposals with the attorney general, who expressed his reservations in the past over three bills she favored; and finally, she will have to make sure that she has a majority in the Knesset. In a 61-member coalition, says Mrs. Barnea, “that’s not an easy task.”
No new judges to the Supreme Court will be selected until 2017. “Even if Shaked survives in the Justice Ministry until then, she will have to get a majority to support her candidate,” says Mr. Barnea.
The Prime Minister and Supreme Court president have more power in selecting the attorney general than the Justice Minister.
In view of the fact that her ideas and their implementation have as much chances as the opposing views and activism, why is Ayelet Shaked considered so “dangerous,” after all?
Zehava Galon the head of the left wing Meretz party described Mrs. Shaked in a Facebook post as an “intelligent and hard-working politician with nationalist anti-democratic views.” Others that oppose her have equally described her as “strategic and focused and grounded in what she believes.”
Maybe that’s where her “danger” inheres. Mrs. Shaked belongs to a new crop of dedicated and believing politicians that are positioning themselves to change the political guard in Israel.
Democracy is served when all ideas compete with each other, producing unintended consensus. Unanimity of ideas seldom serves a society well.
Mrs. Shaked is dangerous only for those for whom respecting opposing ideas is not part of their understanding of what democracy entitles.