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The High Court as a straw man
By Yossi Sarid
Tags: netanyahu, israel news 

When a thief is needed he is taken down from the hangman's noose; the
High Court of Justice is also taken down and lifted up according to need.

The High Court of Justice, it seems, can be anybody's toy. At one time it's a branch of the left-wing Meretz and at another it's a branch of the right-wing Habayit Hayehudi. Maybe the justices are simply fair-minded people? It is definitely an interesting possibility.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak explain to the entire world that it is impossible to freeze construction in the
settlements. "We will not be able to stop construction that has already begun because it won't pass in the High Court," they explain.

In order to repeat and disseminate this explanation, Barak went to Washington this week. And who is more aware of the status of a supreme court than the Americans? They have one too.

But just this week  and with great contempt  the government had no trouble bypassing the justices in Jerusalem. Another bypass-law went through the Knesset on first reading and made a mockery of the court's decision mandating that the state must recognize child-care expenses as tax deductible the law was simply canceled.

If the government really wants to do so, it has no problem giving the finger to the neighbors on the other side of the road. The Israel Defense Forces have no problem either, and we have yet to discover how it will outsmart the ruling handed down on Wednesday against it for another act of whitewashing, as it outsmarted the ban on the "neighbor procedure" (making a neighbor knock on a potentially dangerous door).

Along with his explanations in the area of law, Barak also tried to sell
George Mitchell, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, the idea of
"vertical construction." And again, that very same week, he became enmeshed as usual in a web of lies: He told the High Court that he would evacuate four houses in the illegal outpost Migron, and in their place he would build hundreds of houses  not necessarily skyscrapers  in another settlement.

If the Americans persist in their opposition to vertical as well as horizontal construction, I will consider suggesting, as a last resort, building downward.

Only a few days ago Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch complained: "For years we have been hearing about demolition orders, and nothing happens. As construction progresses more quickly, the same outpost is removed from the law enforcement list." I read her words on the Internet, and I was certain that the next day I would find them in the headlines.

I didn't find any mention of them, and the news editors are right. What else is new, they asked. After all, the discussion of this petition has been going on for four years already  and they threw the news item into the trash bin.

Judicial activism is dead, and is being replaced by judicial passivity, which means a concomitant disrespect for the High Court.

The executive branch's fear of the judicial branch has disappeared. And there isn't always a need for a bypass law, you can simply deceive the justices and ignore their rulings; the justices do not always sound a loud and clear call to order.

The prime minister met recently with the Supreme Court president, and declared "complete confidence in the Supreme Court." On his way to the hall he brought a Trojan horse along with him. Quickly MKs Uri Ariel and David Rotem emerged from its belly, followed by their four candidates for the Supreme Court, who pray with the sinners in the territories not only on Yom Kippur, but all year long.

Although Netanyahu swore his loyalty to the Supreme Court, promised to protect it "from all harm," there will soon be nothing left to protect. Netanyahu and Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have decided to hold the Supreme Court president and her colleagues captive in their offices. What new straw man will now be presented to the Americans?
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