Tzipi Livni's great responsibility

"A great responsibility has fallen on Justice Minister-designate Tzipi Livni (Hatnuah). The extremely stormy period that Israel's democracy has experienced, and the many shocks endured by relations between the justice system and politics, make the role of justice minister a very influential one at this time.

First of all, Livni will have to restore confidence between the two systems and bring the function of the justice minister back to its traditional place as the representative of the judicial system to politicians, and as protector of that system from politicians.

Livni will have to thwart attempts, which have become almost routine, to do the judicial system harm. We saw this in the attempt to replace representatives of the Israel Bar Association on the Judicial Appointments Committee by means of a retroactive law promoted by outgoing Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman (and stopped only at the last minute ). We saw it in repeated efforts to compromise the authority of the High Court of Justice to criticize Knesset legislation, and the right of human rights groups to petition it...."