Wednesday, February 07, 2007

The End to Judicial Tyranny in Israel?

1.
Well, it pains me to tell you this but Ehud Olmert has actually done
something right. Possibly the very first correct thing he has done since
becoming PM. And it is spectacularly correct!

He is appointing professor Daniel Friedman as Minister of Justice.

In some ways, this is one of the most important political decisions in
recent Israeli history.

As you know, Israeli democracy has been under the massive assault by those
promoting judicial tyranny. Under their doctrine of "judicial activism",
it is the proper role of unelected judges to trump and override the
decisions of the elected representatives of the Israeli people. Led by
the previous Chief Justice Aharon Barak and now by the new Chief Justice,
the advocates of judicial activism believe that leftist judges should be
able to dictate to Israel's legislature what laws the law makers may make.
They also believe that unelected judges should be able to dictate
everything from micro-decisions by the army to Israel's foreign policy.
And the advocates of judicial tyranny invariably want the courts to impose
the leftist political agenda on the country, which the judicial advocacy
judges often do.

Tel Aviv University law don Daniel Friedman is both a man of principles and
a man of conservative legal principles. Politically he is a centrist. He
was one of the people serving in the Beijski Commission, one of the most
enlightened commissions ever to operate in Israel, set up after the bank
scandal in 1983 and recommending critical economic reforms that the
political hacks largely ignored. Educated in Israel and at Harvard,
Friedman strongly opposes judicial tyranny and means to rein it in. He
wants to end the system under which the commission for appointing judges
acts as a rubber stamp for the judges already on the Supreme Court bench.
He wants to create a constitutional court that will strip the Supreme
Court of its powers of judicial review of laws. He wants to appoint
judges who will actually obey the law, something quite novel in Israel.
He wants to change the system under which the judge with the most
seniority in the Supreme Court becomes Chief Justice.

And the Left is hysterical, still hoping to "Bork" him. Haaretz is
overflowing with outraged articles. One writer compares the appointment
of Friedman to a hypothetical appointment of traitor Tali Fahima as head
of the Shin Bet. The comparison is amusing since Haaretz has long served
as cheerleader for Fahima and would support her appointment as head of the
Shin Bet if it were to take place. Yossi Beilin wet his nappies when he
heard the news and denounced it. Haaretz legal columnist and cheerleader
for judicial activism Zeev Segel has conniptions. The Haaretz editorial
denounced the appointment as cheap vengeance by Olmert against the courts:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/822765.html

This is the first piece of really good news in Israel in a long time!

2. I had this strange dream last night. In it, Shulamit Aloni heard that
Suha Arafat was goin to land at the Orlando airport. So she jumps in her
Volvo, drive 1000 miles wearing diapers so she will not need to use the
bathroom, ambushes Suha and attacks her for stealing her man.
Of course it was only a dream.

3. The continuing rise of British Anti-Semitism
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/822761.html

4. Is Israel the Problem?
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26790
and http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/viewArticle.aip?id=10829

5. The Left's Tragic Problem:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26797

6. Why Iran should be bombed:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/viewArticle.aip?article=com.commentarymagazine.content.Article::10134
and
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/viewArticle.aip?article=com.commentarymagazine.content.Article::10135

7. What would Rashi say about the Negev farmer who shot the Arab thief?
(Hebrew only - http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/822704.html)






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