The leaders of the United Torah Judaism faction, MK Moshe Gafni and Minister of Housing and Construction Yitzhak Goldknopf, this week expressed their opposition to Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s calls to reinstate his judicial reform legislation.
On Sunday, Levin called for advancing the judicial reform in the wake of the flash bombs that had been launched by anarchists, one of them, reportedly, a retired navy colonel, at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea.
“The time has come to provide full support to restore the legal system and law enforcement systems, and to put an end to anarchy, rampage, defiance, and attempts to harm the prime minister,” Levin said. He noted that the launch of flash bombs was “a link in a chain of violent and anarchist actions, the purpose of which is to assassinate the prime minister and overthrow the elected government by means of a violent coup.” He also claimed that these actions were carried out “under the auspices of selective enforcement by the law enforcement authorities,” and “This criminal conduct was also authorized by the High Court of Justice.”
But none of Minister Levin’s calls for enhancing law and order under a balanced judiciary made any impression on the two Haredi politicians, who preferred bean counting to caring about the law.
MK Gafni claimed that his faction “paid the price” for supporting the judicial reform in the past, and threatened, “We will shove sticks in the sprockets” of Levin’s legislation. “This time it will not happen.”
Minister Goldknopf linked supporting the judicial reform to the pending conscription law, stating, “We will not pass a reform before a conscription law. If we can pass a reform during a time of war, we can also pass a conscription law.”
Sources in UTJ told Makor Rishon earlier this week that “This is not the time to roll back the judicial reform, we wish to reexamine our position on the matter.”
Is it possible that the Haredi party is preparing its parachute for joining a center-left coalition with Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid? After all, it was Gantz who offered them a blank page with his signature at the bottom, inviting them to put down whatever wish list they could dream up. Absolving Haredi yeshiva youths from enlisting in the IDF would be at the top of such a list.
To be fair, it must be noted that the Haredi politicians feel they are the only ones in Netanyahu’s coalition who are paying the price for promoting the judicial reform legislation because they can be punished by the powers that be in Israel’s deep state as a sector. The High Court of Justice and the Attorney General have been persecuting un-enlisted Haredi men by demanding that their children lose their right to daycare subsidies be revoked. With that in mind, the Haredi party may prefer to issue more conciliatory messages to the High Court and the AG, rather than invite their wrath.
