There is still an entire week in which legislation can be advanced, and with this government, it is impossible to rule out the possibility that they will try to pass laws even after the Knesset has dissolved. And yet, this battle has produced clear and unmistakable results. Liberal and democratic Israel has won, while the hard-right coalition has been defeated.
This battle looked lost.
Sixty-four members of Knesset, without a single rebel, were united around the desire to crush the judicial system, neuter the media, and destroy human-rights organizations. On January 4, 2023, when Yariv Levin unveiled his judicial reform, he emphasized that it was only Phase One — the easy part. The difficult stages would come later.
Levin wanted, among other things, to change the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee in a way that would allow the coalition to appoint judges on its own; enable the Knesset to override High Court rulings by a simple majority; abolish the seniority system and the reasonableness doctrine; turn the position of government legal advisers into a position of political trust; dismiss the attorney general; weaken the authority of future legal advisers; restrict standing, making it more difficult to petition the High Court; and more.
After three and a half years of political madness, it can now be said that, at the bottom line, this is apparently the first government in Israel's history that has not appointed a single Supreme Court justice.
Gali Baharav-Miara is still the attorney general. She remains strong and determined and is invited to Cabinet meetings. Government ministries still respect — almost always — her legal opinions and those of their own legal advisers. Isaac Amit is still president of the Supreme Court, and the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee has not changed. The reasonableness doctrine has not been abolished. The Supreme Court has even established a historic activist precedent by striking down Basic Laws.
The public broadcaster has not been shut down. Channels 12 and 13 remain free, and even Army Radio has not yet been closed. Personal and economic sanctions have been imposed on ultra-Orthodox draft evaders and the yeshivas that house them — measures we once would not have imagined being taken.
True, the legislative frenzy of recent weeks — and the coming week — is stuffing the statute book with all kinds of monstrosities. But almost all of them, from the law transferring the Police Internal Investigations Department to the Justice Ministry to splitting the attorney general's role and the Basic Law on Torah Study, will not actually be implemented before the elections.
In that sense, these laws are more of an election platform than genuine legislation. If Netanyahu's coalition wins, these laws will merely be the gentle prologue to what is yet to come.
If, on the other hand, the opposition coalition forms a government, it is easy to imagine a single intensive day of legislation in which the Knesset repeals ten such laws at once.
There may be an argument over the death-penalty law because of Avigdor Lieberman's position. And if the ultra-Orthodox parties are part of the coalition, there will clearly be difficulties regarding legislation concerning the ultra-Orthodox. But the overwhelming majority of these laws will be repealed during the first month of the new government. Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid and Yair Golan are committed to doing so.
Make no mistake: this government has caused enormous damage. What has been done to the police, the Shin Bet, the civil service, as well as the political appointments, the corruption and the effects of violence in the West Bank — will take years to repair, if it can be repaired at all.
This extraordinary legislative knockout was achieved only thanks to the mobilization of millions of citizens, and particularly senior lawyers, doctors, high-tech workers, journalists, the "Brothers in Arms" movement, and opposition lawmakers.
People were arrested, risked losing their jobs, volunteered and sweated, and many now carry scars and criminal records.
Now all that energy must be devoted to making sure that this knockout is not squandered at the ballot box.