Amos Schocken

In many successful companies, a veteran CEO becoming chairman is considered a fitting way to ensure generational change while preserving strategic direction, professional expertise and the trust of investors and clients.

It is indeed regrettable that the attorney general's potency derives from the fact that he also functions as the head of the prosecution.

Dankner's attempt to harm a newspaper simply fulfilling its public role is reflective of a clear and present danger: a weakening of the regulatory system, or the elimination of such a system altogether.

Any vote for a party other than Meretz in effect means appointing someone who constitutes a genuine threat to Israeli society as a "senior minister" - as Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu promised.

Why the prime minister made such a no-holds-barred war against the legal system - which, despite its shortcomings, is one of Israel's most magnificent systems - part of his agenda remains a mystery.

We do not have to identify the characteristics of South African apartheid in the civil rights discrimination in Israel in order to call Israel an apartheid state. It is best that we not try to evade the truth: The Citizenship Law's existence turns Israel into an apartheid state.

How is it possible that a justice minister brings for approval legislation on Basic Laws without first gaining the approval of the coalition partners?

It is not only one particular initiative of Friedmann?s or another that clashes with the government?s guidelines; the very fact that this man holds the office of justice minister is a blunt violation of the coalition agreement.

The decision this week by Labor's Knesset faction to veto the proposed Basic Law on the powers of the court, which Friedmann wants to enact, shows that the party has shed its apathy and understands what it is up against.

The dispute is over whether the justice minister and the cabinet will use their power to influence the choice of the Supreme Court president or whether they will prefer the public interest and the independence of the judiciary.

One needs effrontery and chutzpah of a kind never demonstrated by Rubinstein during his years as a public figure in order to argue that Dorit Beinisch is not worthy of serving as Supreme Court president, and then, following her appointment, to ask for a 'substantive debate without personal attacks.'

If there is one minister in the government of Israel who does not sing the national anthem, then perhaps the national anthem should be re-examined.

The coming year will be one of complex tests. Israel is a country with risks, but also great opportunity. The prime minister's test, if he manages to muster the courage and resolve to provide Israel the leadership it needs, is to exploit the opportunity the country now faces.

Israel must not be a Jewish state that is not democratic. This would mean the failure of Zionism.

Israel's banking sector is capable of providing a type of economic leadership that will be able, to a certain extent, to correct the damage that the government's disappointing economic leadership is causing.