Although the Israeli government is in a state of limbo between the election of the Knesset and the formation of a new government, Prime Minister Netanyahu is still required to appoint a justice minister. On Tuesday, he chose a loyalist, Ofir Akunis, for the job—against the legal advice of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit. The details of the laws at work are obscure, and in any case not easily applied to the current, anomalous situation, so the Supreme Court put a stay on the appointment, after which the prime minister backed down. David Horovitz sums up the outcome:

Last month, the Chinese minister of defense, together with senior military figures, paid a visit to Tehran, where they met with their Iranian counterparts, as well as with the Iranian president. Tuvia Gering and Jason M. Brodsky doubt the talks will result in a grand Sino-Iranian alliance, but they nonetheless expect increased collaboration between the two countries. For many years, they note, Beijing has evaded or violated embargoes to sell arms to the Islamic Republic, and there’s reason to expect more of the same: