Justice is done

It appears that there is agreement on who will serve as the Justice Minister in the Netanyahu government. (Prof) Yaakov Neeman has, supposedly, accepted the position. That's one down, who knows how many more (cabinet positions) to go.

That Daniel Friedmann will end his term, I believe is good news. Despite whatever qualifications he holds to serve as justice minister and his opinions/positions, his support by Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beitenu) a suspect in an ongoing criminal investigation made his suitability also suspect. I'm not sure that his commitment to stay out of the way of police investigations of politicians--Ehud Olmert, Lieberman, ...--was enough to convince me he was appropriate in the first place. The JM (justice minister) needs to actively advocate cleaner politics and government ethics (free of corruption), a more efficient judicial system (reforming the Rabbinical Courts as well as the criminal/civil courts) and somehow reform the Supreme Court without exacerbating the extremism on both sides (the anti-Court [religious groups, right-wingers] and the pro-Court [leftists who use the court as a way to challenge the Knesset laws and army rulings, and supporters of Aharon Barak's judicial philosophy]. Politicizing the judicial system--making it more accountable and determined by the elected political structure--may sound good on paper, however, in light of (i) a broken electoral system and (ii) a Knesset that responds to special interests over national (rational, apolitical) policy, means that the High Court frequently becomes the court of last resort for enacting public policy. It's not a pretty site and requires a lot of attention to correct. The next JM needs to be committed to push a strong but sophisticated agenda to clean up the system by convincing all the "stakeholders" that change is necessary and establishing a workable consensus to enact the changes.

In other news, coalition building is inching along. It appears that Yisrael Beitenu has signed a coalition agreement which makes Leiberman the foreign minister and gives it four other cabinet posts (internal security, tourism, infrastructure and immigrant absorption portfolios), as well as chairmanship of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. Lost in the negotiations were many of the issues it had championed during its campaign, including civil unions, a solution to Jewish conversion problems and changes in the system of government and the electoral system.

In light of intensification of the police investigation of Lieberman , I wonder how long the deal will hold. Additionally, supposedly, the agreement with Netanyahu is to include a clause saying that it is valid only for a narrow government, the expansion of which would necessitate a new arrangement.

How this will play out with the other potential partners; the haredi parties (especially Shas), the right-wing parties and creating a national unity government with Kadima and/or Labour only time will tell. The deadline for creating a government is 3 April. I doubt the government will go against conventional wisdom. It'll be a right-leaning government with Shas.