Plan to split role of AG sparks feud in Kadima

The bill to be submitted today, calling for dividing the attorney general's job into two positions, is being sponsored by a Kadima MK and has the support of party chairwoman Tzipi Livni, but nonetheless was criticized yesterday by Kadima MKs.

Sponsored by State Control Committee chairman MK Yoel Hasson, also of Kadima, the bill calls for the appointment of a judge-investigator whose sole job would be investigating public officials accused of corruption and indicting them, if justified. That would free the attorney general to function solely as the legal adviser to the government.

MK Avi Dichter (Kadima) attacked Livni for supporting the bill, arguing that Kadima had never reached a party-wide decision on the matter.

"We woke up this morning and discovered Kadima is in favor of the split," said Dichter. "I'm not aware of a single discussion in Kadima on the matter. Kadima needs to take a position as a party, not as individuals."

Labor ministers also criticized Livni, who heads the opposition, for supporting the bill.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Labor Party chairman, objected to efforts to change the definition of the attorney general's job via headline-generating legislative efforts, rather than a government decision.

"We always knew Livni wasn't someone who would protect the Israeli law-enforcement system, because she didn't do so in the past, and she won't do it today," said Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon (Labor). "Her desire to take a step that circumvents the government will not succeed."

Livni admitted the attorney general job is inherently problematic: "There is no argument over the fact that the job involves a built-in conflict of interest, in which on the one hand he is advising the cabinet at its meetings, and later finds himself discussing how to formulate indictments against the same cabinet ministers," she said.

However, Hasson's bill, which he said he formulated with Livni, resolves only some of the problems cited by Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, when he said he wanted to divide the attorney general's powers. Neeman has proposed dividing the post between a legal adviser to the government and a general prosecutor. But under Hasson's proposal, the same person would continue to head the general prosecution and serve as government adviser. The judge-investigator position proposed in the bill would be appointed by a public committee on government corruption.