The Netanyahu administration of Israel has stalled on any official inquiry into the circumstances that allowed for the disastrous security breach, allowing the October 7, 2023 assault by Hamas. Given Netanyahu’s history of undermining the Oslo Agreement, the Palestinian Authority, and any middle ground, and favoring the radicalization of both sides, including the Palestinian Hamas, there may be good reasons for him to block any such inquiry.
This morning, when Israel’s High Court of Justice attempted merely to hold a hearing to ascertain whether an official inquiry should be established, a pro-Netanyahu mob attempted to break into the hearing. Court security had the justices evacuate the courtroom and, according to the Times of Israel, proceedings were suspended for some 20 minutes.
During the five-hour session, the government’s lawyer, Michael Rabello, as TOI put it, “insisted that the court does not have the authority to order the government to establish a state commission of inquiry, since the law empowers the cabinet alone, or the Knesset, to make such a decision.” Justice Yael Wilner responded: “All the rulings of the High Court establish that the court has the authority to intervene in irregular and extreme circumstances.” He asked Rabello: “Is this an irregular situation?” Then the Deputy President of the Supreme Court, Noam Sohlberg, called out Netanyahu’s refusal to establish a state commission of inquiry: “Is the decision of the government not extreme? In practice, nothing has been done. Is this not an extreme situation? What part of the government’s conduct hasn’t been extreme up to this point?”
Rabello countered that no commission of inquiry should be established until after the current wars on all fronts had been won. In his words: “The time is not yet ripe to establish an investigative committee. We are now in a very fragile ceasefire. I was afraid that we would not be able to get to the hearing. The main thing right now is that the State of Israel will win the fighting on all fronts.” Wilner called Rabello’s position “a bombshell,” asking: “Only after the war ends will we investigate what happened three to four years ago?”
The argument about first winning the fighting “on all fronts” was coherent with Netanyahu’s years-long underlying strategy of permanent emergencies, permanent fighting, and even the creation of new enemies. As such, he tries to delay a conviction in his corruption case, to break the legal system and to delay elections. Outside of court, Netanyahu’s government has argued that they can’t establish a state commission, because the members of such a committee are to be appointed by the Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, and he is biased against Netanyahu.
