In judicial reform battle, it’s Bibi vs. his own party

Illustration: Sivan Schwam

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AN old Jewish folk story tells of a slave who buys his master a spoiled fish. Forced to choose among the punishments of a whipping, a fine, or eating the fish himself, the slave decides to try the fish. Halfway through, he changes his mind, and decides to take the whipping instead. Halfway through the whipping, he changes his mind yet again, and has to pay the fine after all. By the end, he’s paid all three penalties.

And that just about sums up the week for Justice Minister Yariv Levin. The man who led the coalition on the judicial reform that pushed Israeli society to the brink tried once again to force matters — this time against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, only to crash and burn in spectacular fashion.

Levin’s fate turned on an issue that somehow dominated Israel’s news cycle to the exclusion of the ballooning cost of living, sharply rising interest rates, the Arab sector crime wave, and the terror on the roads of Judea and Samaria. For days, Israeli news outlets trumpeted special coverage of the identities of the two MKs elected to represent the Knesset on the Judicial Selection Committee.

Membership on the exclusive nine-member Judicial Selection Committee assumes outsized importance in every coalition, but usually concerns only the justice minister and the coalition chair, without requiring round-the-clock attention from the prime minister, the president, and the entire political system.