David M. Weinberg
Israel Hayom, Jan. 8, 2023
“The squatters have had more than 10 years of recourse to Israeli courts all the way up to the Supreme Court, and even that liberal top court has cleared the way for determined Israeli action.”
The unjustified wild reaction to Minster of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir’s important 13-minute ascent to the Temple Mount this week tells us one thing: The world holds Israel and especially Israel’s new government in complete contempt. It thinks it can dictate to Israel how it should administer the holiest place (to Jews) in the world, how it should define who is a Jew, where Israelis should and should not live or “settle,” when the Israeli police and army can open fire against terrorists and more. The world is going to object to almost every policy for which the new Israeli government was elected.
My conclusion: Strike while the iron is hot. The new government should move swiftly to make its most important changes while it is still relatively united, and the world is still reeling. A chorus of international condemnations will follow in any case, and Israel might as well plow through this onslaught in a concentrated fashion.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin has set out on this exact path by introducing a cluster of legal reforms that in one fell swoop will properly realign the balance of power between the judiciary, legislature and government. Not everything he is pushing is perfectly wise nor will it pass Knesset exactly as tabled. (For example, a 61-vote Supreme Court override is an overreach; 70+ votes would be wiser.) But changing the way justices are selected and canceling the ability of the Supreme Court to super-subjectively and on a whim strike down Knesset legislation as “unreasonable” or “unbalanced” is long overdue. No other country in the world has a Supreme Court so imperious. Israel should implement its legal reforms as it sees fit. … Source