What’s happened: The cabinet convened yesterday to discuss and hold a vote of no confidence in the attorney general. This is the first step towards removing her from office.

• The cabinet meeting was chaired by Justice Minister Levin, as the prime minister recused himself, due to his ongoing trial and a conflict of interests.
• Making the case against Baharav-Miara, Levin said, “The attorney general has almost systematically refused to appear before the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. She ignores ministers’ requests and doesn’t respond to me. She blatantly ignores letters from me, the justice minister, to say nothing of what happens with other ministers. The attorney general operates in complete contradiction to her role, in a way that cannot be described as anything other than political while citing legal impediments in a long list of things. The attorney general is using her technical power to prevent government legislation and has become a sort of veto.” 
• Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara did not attend the meeting but sent a letter outlining her position, “This proposal is not trying to further the cause of confidence, but rather loyalty to the political leadership. It is not about governance, but rather unchecked governmental power as part of a wider programme to weaken the judiciary and to deter all the professional levels. The government wants to be above the law and to act without checks and balances.”
• The ministers voted unanimously in favour of the no-confidence motion. 
• In parallel, thousands demonstrated outside, protesting the government’s decisions to fire both the head of the Shin Bet Ronen Bar, and now Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. Though unelected, both positions are considered gatekeepers of democratic norms.   
• Among the speakers at the demonstration outside the government meeting included retired Supreme Court Justice Ayala Procaccia. She told the crowd, “We are in the midst of a deep rift that threatens to bring down the entire democratic institution. For the first time, the unwritten agreement that all governments have respected is being violated. Breaking the independence of central institutions and breaking down oversight institutions will cause the face of this country to go from one extreme to the other. Israel will no longer be a free, democratic country but rather a different type of regime that we cannot recognise.” 

Context: The process of firing the head of the Shin Bet and the attorney general will both be discussed by special committees. The decisions could then be appealed in the Supreme Court. 

• Both committees will focus on procedural issues and the apparent conflicts of interests.
• On procedure, the role of director of the Shin Bet will be reviewed by a special advisory committee for senior appointments.
• The office of attorney general is covered by a different special advisory committee comprising a mix of legal scholars, civil servants, and politicians. However two appointments have expired and have not been replaced. One is required to be a former attorney general, the other required to be a former Minister of Justice. Every single living former attorney general, including several appointed by Netanyahu, strongly opposes the firing of Baharav-Miara. 
• On the other side, recent former ministers of justice are known to support her firing. As well as being former justice ministers, both Speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar are part of the current administration. 
• In Saar’s case, he voted with the cabinet last night, despite being the minister that recommended Baharav-Miara’s appointment in the Bennet led government.  
• To further complicate matters, the person occupying the law professor seat on the committee is Tali Einhorn, a very conservative scholar known to be quite enthusiastic about firing Baharav-Miara, but she too might have to step aside for an obvious conflict of interest, her son, Srulik Einhorn, (an adviser to the prime minister) is one of the three leading suspects in the unfolding “Qatargate” scandal, as well as in the illegal leaks of classified material to the German Bild newspaper last year. He is currently in Serbia, and has refrained from returning to Israel for months in order to avoid police questioning. 
• In any event, the advisory committee’s recommendation are non-binding. However,  given all the procedural difficulties, the Supreme Court might very rule that ignoring both or either violates the now famous “reasonableness clause.” It almost certainly wouldn’t accept a process where the committees have not even been convened.  
• The larger conflict of interest surrounds the prime minister, as the attorney general is prosecuting his corruption trial. He absented himself from the cabinet discussion on her dismissal, but it’s not clear that the Court will be impressed that this is enough. 
• In the case of the Shin Bet director, he cannot absent himself. The Shin Bet is an agency inside the Prime Minister’s Office, and he is the one who requested the director’s dismissal. Here is a different conflict of interest, as it was the Shin Bet that launched an investigation into Qatari influence in the Prime Minister’s Bureau. Ronen Bar himself has all but outright accused Netanyahu of seeking to fire him and replace him with a more pliant director in order to quash this investigation, and this is a version of events that much of the Israeli media has broadly accepted. If the Court accepts it too, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which it approves the government’s decision to fire Bar. 
• Netanyahu and his closest backers see the events in the exact opposite way: they argue that the entire investigation of Qatari influence was concocted as a way to block Bar’s dismissal. This was the central accusation Netanyahu made in a video he posted Saturday night with “bombshell revelations” about the timing of the investigation. 
• When so much of the investigation classified and under a gag order, it’s not easy to piece together the precise sequence. However, several Israel media reports have suggested that the dates don’t add up in a way that is compatible with Netanyahu’s argument. The Prime Minister’s Bureau was asked to respond to the first Qatargate report in the media one day before it first even suggested dismissing Bar. 

Looking ahead: The Court will consider Bar’s case on April 8^th. 

• The government has given several ambiguous indications that it will ignore a Court ruling it does not like (only one minister, Moshe Arbel of Shas, has explicitly ruled this out). Such a situation would plunge the country into a constitutional crisis and, most likely, a crippling general strike.

What’s happened: On his second day as chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir visited the Gaza Strip accompanied by the outgoing head of Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman and other high-ranking officers.

• Zamir met with troops and local civilian leaders, telling them “We must be always on the alert, always tense, always ready, always suspicious, drill constantly. Look behind you, you can see the houses of Sderot. You are defending the residents of Sderot. You have great responsibility. I have confidence in you.”
• His visit followed late night consultations in which he approved a new operational plan if fighting resumes in Gaza as well as the appointments of several senior officers.   
• Among the new appointments is Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, who will now serve as deputy chief of staff, replacing Maj. Gen. Amir Baram, who in turn will replace Zamir as director general of the Defence Ministry.
• Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor will be the new head of the Southern Command while Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen is the new director of the IDF Operations Branch. 
• Among Zamir’s initial plans are:
  • Reestablishing armoured recon platoons that were disbanded a few years ago and consider making one of them an ultra-Orthodox platoon.
  • Offering greater financial support for families of regular service members, career soldiers, and reservists.
  • Disbanding the Strategy and Iran Division next month – a decision already taken – and redistributing responsibilities to different units.
  • Zamir has also said the pictures of the hostages would be on display in his office until they return.

Context: The change in command represent a fresh start for the army as it continues to rehabilitate itself and reconcile with the failures on October 7th following the completion of their internal investigations.

• Zamir has acknowledged the IDF failed its mission on October 7th, but noted the army had emerged “from of the abyss and fought back.”
• Zamir has said that Gaza and Iran are the two most significant challenges he faces, while also recognising the IDF’s moral duty to bring all the hostages home.
• Defence Minister Katz met with the IDF General Staff forum led by Chief of Staff Zamir and presented his objectives for the IDF:
  • First of all Israel’s ability to defend itself by itself, against any threat, both on the front lines and on the home front.
  • Second is removing Iran’s nuclear threat.
  • Third is preserving the strategic alliance with the US.
  • Fourth is building the IDF’s strength as a powerful and triumphant military.
• With no breakthrough in negotiations, the IDF is prepping for the option of resumption in fighting in Gaza. It is anticipated that the new IDF commander favours a more aggressive approach, using far more troops simultaneously in order to shorten the duration of the war.
• However, he will maintain the policy of distinction towards the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and is expected to facilitate the movement of civilians to a safe area for their protected from airstrikes and ground manoeuvres.
• In the latest displays of close coordination with the American military, US CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla visited Israel this week to attend Zamir’s appointment ceremony.
• In addition, the Israeli Air Force conducted a joint aerial exercise with the US Air Force this week. The drill included Israeli F-35i and F-15i fighter jets flew alongside a US B-52 strategic bomber. 

Background: Prior to his appointment Zamir had served as Director General of the Ministry of Defence. As such he was not part of the operational chain of command on October 7th.

• Zamir was the consensus candidate of the prime minister and defence minister (having in the past served as Netanyahu’s military secretary).  
• Zamir will be the first chief of staff in 50 years who began his military service in the Armoured Corps.
• There are several substantial issues on Zamir’s agenda:
  • The operational challenges across all seven fronts that Israel has faced over the last 15 months.
  • Structural issues including manpower, and the potential draft law for ultra-Orthodox men.
  • Overseeing the rehabilitation of the IDF’s reputation in relation to the Israeli public.
• His appointment is viewed as return to first principles – against the overreliance on technology – and a balance between quality and quantity. For example, Zamir previously objected to cuts that were made to the number of tanks in IDF use. 
• Zamir also believed that the IDF’s overreliance on the air force was incorrect and was in favour of the establishment of a missile corps. He has also emphasised the needs for the IDF to improve its ground manoeuvring capabilities. 

Looking ahead: Next week Southern Command Commander Yaron Finkelman will be replaced by Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor

• The new IDF command is expected to build a new multi-year strategy, which is expected to begin in the second half of 2025.

Hostages: Families of the hostages and their supporters are marking 500 days since their kidnapping, while 73 hostages remain in Hamas captivity in Gaza.      

• Demonstrations are anticipated across the country. In Jerusalem there will be a protest march from the prime minister’s home to the Knesset.
• The Hostages and Missing Families Forum announced a ‘day’ of fasting (500 minutes), while noting that “this is nothing compared to the suffering of those still there. It is a day of solidarity that would strengthen the hostages and echo the cry of those who are not heard. There is no more time. Action is needed to return all of them immediately.”
• Saturday saw the release of another three hostages – Sasha Trufanov, Sagi Dekel-Chen, and Iair Horn. This leaves 73 hostages in Gaza, six of whom are due to be released as part of the first stage of the deal along with eight bodies. Of the then remaining 59 it is thought around half are still alive.
• At a press conference last night Yelena Trufanov, the mother of Sasha said that her son had been shot in both legs on October 7th, adding “it’s a miracle that he is standing and walking. I feel that I have been given back my life, my soul, my heart. Sasha came back alive and well and that is a great joy and relief.”
• Sagi Dekel-Chen commented, “It’s nice to say 498 days, but we were there for over 43 million seconds of hell. We don’t count days, we don’t count minutes. We count seconds in this hell.”
• In return for those hostages, Israel once more released over 300 Palestinian prisoners, 33 of whom were serving life sentences. In this round, most were from Fatah rather than Hamas, which allowed Hamas to magnanimously claim to be working on behalf of all the terror factions. Among the prominent terrorists – active during the Second Intifada – released this weekend are:
  • Ahmed Barghouti (Fatah), serving 13 life sentences, murdered 12 Israelis.
  • Muhammad Matzlah (Fatah), serving nine life sentences, was involved in the lynching of two IDF reservists.
  • Shadi Abu Shahdam (Fatah), serving six life sentences, murdered six civilians, and wounding of over 100.
  • Nael Abid, (Hamas), serving four life sentences, involved in the murder of seven civilians, and wounding of 60.

Diplomacy: On Sunday night the Prime Minister’s Office announced that it was sending a negotiations team to Cairo (today), “in order to discuss the continued implementation of the first stage of the deal.”

• One of the unresolved issues of the first stage is the entrance of mobile caravan homes from Egypt into Gaza. Israel may be looking to leverage their entry in order to speed up the release of the remaining six live hostages, who are due for release in the first stage.
• The security cabinet is expected to convene later today to establish the guidelines for the negotiators to discuss the second stage of the deal.
• US envoy Witkoff told Fox News on Sunday that he was certain that the second stage of the agreement would be carried out. Witkoff said that stage was more “intricate and complicated” than the first, since it would entail an end to the war and Hamas “being gone from Gaza.”
• Another issue being considered is the extension of the first stage. This coincides with the sensitive month of Ramadan due to begin at the end of next week. The idea is that such an extension would see the release of more hostages in exchange for more Palestinian security prisoners without either side needing to make the more difficult concessions as part two of the deal.

Israel – US coordination: On Sunday Israeli leaders hosted the new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.  

• In a three hour meeting between Rubio and PM Netanyahu, they discussed the Iranian threat, the next stages of the ceasefire in Lebanon, the post Assad regime in Syria, Trump’s plan for post war Gaza and the hostages.
• Rubio also met with President Herzog, Foreign Minister Saar, and Leader of the Opposition Lapid.  
• These meetings are the latest example of the close ties between the new US administration and the Israeli government.   
• In a joint press conference Netanyahu took the opportunity to restate, “President Trump and I are working in full cooperation and coordination between us. We have a common strategy and we can’t always share in details this strategy with the public, including when the gates of hell will be opened, as they surely will if all our hostages are not released, until the last one of them.”
• Rubio said, “The president has been very clear: Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force. And frankly, as long as it stands as a force that can govern or a force that can administer or a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible. They must be eliminated. It must be eradicated.”
• Rubio also related to the Iranian threat saying, “Iran is the single greatest source of instability in the region. Behind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilising activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people who call this region home, is Iran. And by Iran, I mean the ayatollahs. By Iran, I mean its regime, a regime who by the way, its people don’t support. The people of Iran are victims of that regime.”  
• Rubio added, “If there were more Israelis in the Middle East, more countries like that, the world would be a safer and a better place. And this is what we hope for the region and for our planet. A nation that has always sought peace but will not allow itself to be intimidated or destroyed by its enemies. And on that front, you can always count on us.”
• Also this weekend, Israel received delivery of a shipment of heavy bombs. Despite their hold up, according to the Ministry of Defence, “over 76,000 tonnes of military equipment have arrived in Israel via 678 airlifts and 129 sea shipments. This represents the largest air and sea bridge in Israel’s history.”

Looking ahead: Once the security cabinet has discussed the second phase, senior negotiators are expected to meet later this week in Qatar.

• Jordan and Egypt are preparing to present an alternative to President Trump’s plan to remove the residents of Gaza to other countries in the region.

What’s happened: Yesterday, following his election in January, Justice Isaac Amit was sworn in as President of Israel’s Supreme Court. It is the first time that the position has been filled permanently in seventeen months.

• While attended by President Herzog, Amit’s inauguration was notably boycotted by the whole of the Israeli cabinet, including the prime minister and justice minister.
• Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s boycotting of the ceremony underscores how opposed he has been to Amit’s appointment at every possible step in the process.
• Speaking at his appointment, Amit stressed the importance of the judiciary’s independence stating that it is “an essential component in the tripartite system of government… It does not stand above the other branches but operates alongside them, as an equal partner in the democratic framework of checks and balances. The role of the judiciary in this framework is to uphold the rule of law and protect individual rights from unlawful harm, whether from other individuals or from the government.”
• Amit also asserted his view of Israel’s courts as “a public trustee…[which is] loyal to the public – and to the public alone.” This further underscores the strong divide between the judicial and executive branches of government.
• President Herzog called on both sides of the divide to move towards compromise and reconciliation, to reach a “national spirit of goodwill—an era of outreach, moderation, and broad consensus-building.”
• This was needed “especially today,” Herzog continued, “as the voices of our captive sisters and brothers cry out to us from beneath the ground in Gaza, and we remain deeply concerned for their fate—the people of Israel look to the leadership of the three branches of government, yearning to see their leaders working shoulder to shoulder despite their differences.” 
• He also added more criticism of the government boycotting the proceedings, explicitly stating that there was “no place” in a democracy for different branches of a government to shun each other.

Context: The unprecedented boycotting of the ceremony is a stark reminder of the chasm between the governing coalition and the judiciary.

• This is the first time the role has been filled since October 2023, when the outgoing Chief Justice, Esther Hayut, retired. Levin refrained from appointing her replacement, and it took almost a year until the High Court ruled that he did not have the authority to postpone the position indefinitely, eventually leading to Amit’s election last month. 
• While the judiciary sees this is as a strengthening of the rule of law, their independence, and the separation of powers, the coalition view this as a tyranny of unelected minority of elites.
• The ceremony is a symbolic victory for the legal establishment, but the appointment could also provoke the coalition to renew their efforts to reform the system.
• The only legislation from the package of reforms proposed by Justice Minister Levin to pass parliament was the cancellation of the “reasonableness clause” in July 2023, which the Supreme Court eventually struck down. 
• The controversial judicial reform package was frozen to accommodate the entry of Benny Gantz’s party into the coalition four days after the 7th October attacks. With Gantz’s departure from the coalition last June, Levin no longer saw himself as being bound by that commitment. 
• One of the most contentious aspect of Levin’s proposed reforms involved the Judicial Appointments Committee. Levin and his supporters argued that the current makeup gave an outsized influence to serving judges and, in effect, was perpetuating a liberal and activist majority on the Court.
• Opponents of Levin’s reforms argued that it would put too much power in the hands of the governing majority, rendering the Court a rubber stamp for the government rather than a vital check on its power. Currently, the Committee is comprised of two Ministers of Government, two Members of Knesset, three judges, and two representatives of the Israeli Bar Association. It requires a supermajority of seven members out of nine to appoint a Supreme Court Justice.
• Months after Gantz’s departure from the coalition and war cabinet in June 2024, Gidon Saar broke off from Gantz and rejoined the coalition. He and Levin announced a compromise proposal for reforming the Judicial Appointments Committee in January that would eliminate the two Bar Association representatives and replace them with one MK from the coalition and one from the opposition.
• Their reform would also eliminate the supermajority requirement for Supreme Court appointments. While a far cry from the far-reaching reforms that Levin initially sought two years ago, this compromise would still weaken the weight of “professional” (that is, non-political) actors in the Committee and leave the Court more sensitive to the political majority of the day. The compromise proposal has not been advanced to a vote, and has been criticised by the government’s Attorney General.
• Over more than a year of this impasse over appointments and reforms to the appointment process, the Court functioned without a Chief Justice. Ultimately, the Committee met, without Levin, and picked a Chief Justice with the method that has been in use until now – namely by seniority.
• A result of this disagreement has included the inability to replace two retiring Supreme Court justices leaving their positions vacant. There has also been a knock-on effect with numerous appointments in lower courts remaining unfilled, causing significant delays to legal proceedings across the country.
• The constitutional crisis that tore Israel apart in the months before 7th October could now be back on the political agenda, just as the war takes a pause, the Knesset heads toward a possible dissolution, and Prime Minister Netanyahu is forced to make time each week testifying in his criminal trial.

Looking ahead: Regarding the hostage deal, Hamas has confirmed that it intends to release three Israeli hostages tomorrow, with their names expected to be released later today.