Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> has been clear about why he rejects a state Commission of Inquiry appointed by the president of the Supreme Court. Such a body, he argues, would be rejected by at least half the country as biased and predetermined. In today\u2019s Israel, that is not an imaginary concern. Years of unrelenting political attacks on the judiciary \u2013 attacks Netanyahu himself has led \u2013 have deeply eroded public trust among large segments of the Right.<\/p>\nAdd to that the role of Supreme Court President Yitzhak Amit, whose appointment earlier this year was itself politically charged, and the lines harden even further still. On the Right, the argument is that Amit and the judiciary must also be examined, given court rulings over the years touching on security, Gaza, and the army, and therefore cannot be mandated to select the committee members.<\/p>\n
On the other side, opponents of a government-appointed committee also make a compelling case: the subject of an investigation should not choose his own investigators. Netanyahu was the prime minister on October 7 and has been in power for roughly 15 of the last 17 years. Any inquiry whose mandate or composition is determined by the current coalition will inevitably be suspected of self-interest, whitewashing, or deflection.<\/p>\n
And yet, for all the force with which both sides make their case, they share a blind spot.<\/p>\n
Is Netanyahu correct in distrusting the judiciary?<\/h3>\n The real question is not whether Netanyahu is right to distrust the judiciary, or whether the opposition is right to insist that those under investigation cannot appoint their own investigators. The real question is whether any inquiry whose very composition is contested from the outset can serve the role the country needs it to serve.<\/p>\n
A commission of inquiry is not meant to settle political scores; it is meant to restore a measure of trust in a system that has failed catastrophically. That trust cannot be rebuilt if half the country will reject the findings before the investigation even begins. Even the most sweeping investigative powers will mean little if the findings are dismissed as partisan from day one.<\/p>\n
There are, however, ways out of this impasse \u2013 if both camps are willing to accept that compromise is not surrender.<\/p>\n
One proposal gaining attention would be to establish a commission headed by a retired Supreme Court or District Court judge, with members appointed by a small committee representing the judiciary, the government, the coalition, and the opposition. Every appointment to the commission would require unanimous approval by the appointment committee, so each side would feel that its perspective is represented.<\/p>\n
Such a framework would frustrate ideologues on both sides. It would deny both the Right and the Left exclusive control over the process. And that\u2019s precisely the point. A commission accepted reluctantly by both camps is far more valuable than one embraced enthusiastically by one and rejected outright by the other.<\/p>\n
Lessons learned from October 7<\/h3>\n This is not a technical debate about how to construct a commission of inquiry. It is a test of whether Israeli society has absorbed one of the most important lessons of October 7.<\/p>\n
Author and philosopher Micah Goodman once framed Israel\u2019s prewar judicial crisis as a clash between two supreme values. For one camp \u2013 the pro-reform camp \u2013 Israel\u2019s Jewish character was paramount. For the other, its democratic character was non-negotiable. Compromise was viewed as weakness because only the weak and lily-livered compromise on core values.<\/p>\n
Then October 7 happened.<\/p>\n
In the immediate aftermath, a different virtue emerged: unity. Protesters who had been screaming at each other weeks earlier found themselves in the same tanks, sleeping in the same tents, confronting the same enemy. For a moment, it became clear that without unity, there might be neither a Jewish state nor a democratic one, because there might not be a state at all.<\/p>\n
As the war dragged on, however, that insight and sentiment faded, and pre-October 7 divisions reasserted themselves. That is perhaps inevitable. But the lessons must not be forgotten, especially the critical need to compromise.<\/p>\n
Compromise on the structure of a commission of inquiry is not a betrayal of values. It is recognition that in a deeply divided society, getting to the truth requires legitimacy. If each side insists on total control of the process, the result will not be accountability; it will be paralysis.<\/p>\n
The question now is whether Israel\u2019s leaders \u2013 and its rival political camps \u2013 understand that healing does not begin with winning an argument over who appoints a committee. It starts with establishing a committee that enjoys the confidence of the overwhelming majority of the country. And to get there, compromise is needed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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