Among the many flaws in Israel’s deeply dysfunctional judicial system is the procedure for selecting new justices to the supreme court, which requires that three sitting justices be part of the nine-member judicial-appointments committee. The Knesset has recently proposed modifying the rules, not to change the committee’s makeup but to take away the justices’ veto power over its decisions. In a recent speech, the former court president Aharon Barak—who did much to augment the institution’s power over the elected branches of the government—responded that the court is a “family” and “we cannot bring in someone who is not part of the family,” and encouraged the entire supreme court to resign in retaliation. Michael Deborin comments:

Yesterday, eleven months of political stalemate in Israel appeared to have come to an end as the sitting prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his main rival, Benny Gantz, agreed to form a unity government together with some of the smaller parties. This development has fractured Gantz’s Blue and White party into its constituent factions. Meanwhile, the resignation of Yuli Edelstein as interim Knesset speaker—a position meant to be occupied for just a few hours, but which he has held for nearly a year—has allowed the Knesset to resume business as usual.