![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Swearing-in_ceremony_of_Justice_Isaac_Amit_as_the_new_president_of_the_Supreme_Court-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span>Second, according to Newton\u2019s third law, the tug will be met with counterforce: Petitions will be filed, and a likely outcome is a judicial ruling that the appointment is invalid because the appointer acted, as already determined, under the shadow of a conflict of interest. The prime minister will leverage the disqualification to reinforce the narrative of \u201cbureaucratic rule\u201d and further erode public confidence in the rule of law.<\/p>\n
Third, the appointment of a new Shin Bet chief will be delayed for many weeks \u2013 during wartime \u2013 due to this legal arm wrestling. And the spiral could continue even longer.<\/p>\n
Fourth, the prime minister has inserted unwanted tension between Israel\u2019s two vital security agencies \u2013 the IDF and the Shin Bet \u2013whose cooperation saves lives.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, the dangerous flirtation of Israeli public leaders with the horrifying prospect of disobeying a High Court ruling, which will likely result in the dissolution of Israeli society, will continue and intensify.<\/p>\n
Defying the court will lead us to anarchy \u2013 \u201cEach man swallowing his neighbor alive\u201d (Ethics of the Fathers, 3:1). In such a scenario, the court might deploy its doomsday weapon: declaring the prime minister incapacitated \u2013 a move that could trigger civil strife of unimaginable consequence.<\/p>\n
There is still a way to stop the decline. Given that the attorney-general has determined that the appointment process must be restarted without the \u201cdirect or indirect\u201d involvement of the prime minister, Zini must declare immediately that he is willing to be appointed only after all the conditions she has set forth are fulfilled and after his nomination is approved by the Appointments Committee and, in the event a petition is filed, by the High Court as well.<\/p>\n
It will be incumbent upon the prime minister to rectify the appointment process by transferring his appointment authority to another minister. The government should then be required to hold a proper professional process, cooperate fully with the Appointments Committee \u2013 chaired by former chief justice Asher Grunis \u2013 and lower the confrontational tone toward the court and the attorney-general.<\/p>\n
Although the attorney-general has expressed doubt about the possibility of appointing Zini at all, it seems to me that one should not disqualify a person who is unblemished personally and whose integrity is universally acknowledged solely because the prime minister selected him through a flawed process.<\/p>\n
Certainly, the proper process must be conducted, and Zini should keep a significant distance from the Qatargate investigation \u2013 and that should suffice. If the court adopts this approach, we may be able to emerge from this saga unscathed.<\/p>\n
In Greek tragedy, whose world is myth and legend, disaster is inevitable, but our tragedy concerns real life, personal and national, and disaster must be avoided. Greek hubris \u2013 the presumptuousness to act without regard to external constraints \u2013 is the trap into which tragic heroes fall. That trap now lies before all the actors. They must not heed the seductive chorus \u2013 each has their own \u2013 urging them to win the fight with one final, mighty tug of the rope.<\/p>\n
The annals of history await you, Mr. Prime Minister, honorable justices, General Zini. Will you know how to conquer your own impulses?<\/p>\n