July 25
Morgan Stanley just downgraded Israel; Israel stocks and shekel continue downward. Experts say reclaiming our top-notch ratings may take upwards of five years, were the legislation repealed immediately.
The labor court this afternoon shut down today’s medical (protest) strike, ordering doctors to return to work. The medical association left open the possibility of a (general) strike next week.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara just ruled against the recently-passed “Incapacitation” bill (an amendment to a Basic Law) preventing the Supreme Court from ordering the prime minister to recuse himself from his position, calling it a “fundamentally flawed constitutional amendment.”
12% rise in transportation/RavKav costs; no comment from Likud Transportation Minister Miri Regev.
The United Torah Judaism bill exempting Haredim from conscription was decried on both sides of the aisle today. But according to TOI, a UTJ source said it was submitted so the preliminary reading could occur Oct 15 when the Knesset reconvenes, and that submitting the bill immediately after the reasonableness vote sent a message to Netanyahu to meet UTJ’s political and legislative demands.
United Torah Judaism pushing a Basic (ie, immutable) Law formalizing the yeshiva military exemptions. This would prevent Supreme Court decisions on Haredi conscription: The Supreme Court would no longer have a constitutional basis to strike down any law on this in the future.
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, shekel exchange rate, credit ratings all down. TA-125 index down 2.3% TA-35 down 2.2%, TA-90 down 2.8%.
Likud Transportation Minister Miri Regev is demanding that the Attorney General investigate former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the Israeli ex-pilot community for concocting a plan for an attempted coup d’etat against the current government, based on a video from March 2020 (ie, three years before the current coalition was in office.)
Best quote today: “Instead of a country that has a government, we are becoming a government that has a country.” Benny Gantz
The government is trying to force the Israeli Medical Association to call off their 24-hour protest strike today. (Only emergent medical care and hospitals in Jerusalem are open.) Health Minister Moshe Arbel and Director-General of the Health Ministry Moshe Bar Siman requested an injunction from the Labor Court, in an attempt to prevent the doctors’ strike. Channel 12 reporting that minutes after a WhatsApp group was opened for doctors interested in pursuing jobs abroad, 650 doctors joined the group.
Front pages of all the major Hebrew newspapers including Yediot Aharonot, Calcalist, Israel Hayom, and Haaretz were pitch black today in an initiative apparently paid for by the Israeli high-tech community.
Some agents have informed Mossad Director Davis Barnea that they are considering leaving the Mossad as a result of the situation, according to a report on Channel 12.
United Torah Judaism proposing a bill that equates study of Torah to military service, effectively enabling Haredim to substitute yeshiva for military service with full army benefits. “This is in line with the coalition agreement,” MK Moshe Roth (UTJ) said. (Ynet)
Reports that The High Court likely to deliberate the unreasonableness bill, and could issue an interim order freezing the legislation. “Based on her position regarding the overhaul plan, Attorney General Galia Baharav-Miara is not expected to defend the legislation in court.” (Times of Israel) The Israeli Bar Association, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid are all filing petitions against the new law. Israeli high court justices including Supreme Court President Esther Hayut are returning prematurely from overseas to deal with this.
Unreasonableness Bill
Unlike in US democracy, with a possible disconnect eg, between a Republican president and Democratic control of the House and Senate, plus an independent judiciary, Israel’s ruling coalition by definition controls the Knesset. The court is thus the only check-and-balance Israel has: Defanging the court’s power effectively gives the governing coalition total control over all three branches of government, jeopardizing Israel’s democracy.
The reasonableness bill that the Coalition just passed is one such way to defang the judiciary; it is an amendment to a Basic Law (basic laws are what Israel has in place of a constitution) that now won’t allow the courts to second guess the ‘reasonableness’ of such things as appointments (eg, Aryeh Deri, who was barred in January from being interior and health minister because of his repeated criminal convictions; or firing the attorney general, as members of the Coalition have already suggested.)
Yariv Levin was particularly intent on passing reasonableness, since otherwise the courts could have used it to force him to convene the Judicial Selection Committee. (Levin wants to change the composition of that committee, and give the government more power in electing judges.)
Itamar Ben-Gvir is hoping that reasonableness’s passage will help him advance a bill to prevent the attorney general from blocking a minister from doing something she deems illegal.
Now that the reasonableness bill has passed in the Knesset, Israel’s Supreme Court will be asked to rule on its legality. But for the Supreme Court to rule on a basic law has little precedent.
