Dear Justice Minister Yariv Levin,
Let me introduce myself.
I am an American-Israeli and have been politically conservative about Israel's legal system since the 1990s. I voraciously read the articles in Azure arguing that the court was turning itself into an untouchable authority making Israeli "democracy" into a mockery and "law" into a sad joke.
I agree with you and others that attempting to play with the legal system "by the rules" is a mug's game, since they change the rules whenever they want and since law - even Basic Laws and even the constitution they claim exists - is nothing more than a foil for a result they determined in advance, facts and law be damned.
I also agree that all the claims of people in the legal system and their supporters that they are "above politics" are nonsense.
But here's the thing: it's not enough to be right about all this. The spectacular failure of the reform showed this. All the great arguments could do little to penetrate the scaremongering of journalists and jurists and politicians.
What's worse, and as you know, just passing a law is not enough - certainly not in a world where the Supreme Court strikes down anything it doesn't like for any reason.
If you're going to push reform - and I agree reform is needed - then you need to let go of the Jabotinsky-ite approach of right makes its own might. Right, and truth, do not stand on their own. Not in our world. You know this from the unfortunate success of anti-Israel propaganda regarding our own war in Gaza.
Instead, you need to be just as political as the court is - develop allies within power centers, find judges and professors and attorneys who support you. Develop a game plan - if they do this, we do that, if they do that, we do this - so that the court understands it cannot just do whatever it wants without consequence.
You need to fight to win.
Maybe look at examples from around the world of democracies reforming courts and see how it was done - not just formally, but politically.
Maybe most importantly - you can't fight this war alone. You need lots of people with you who will continue after you leave office who will teach the judges and the jurists and all their sycophants a thing or two about playing tough.
For the sake of the country and for Israeli democracy, play this game to win.
Yours,
Avi Woolf
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