Clearly, the law is absurdly broad, and it also makes little sense because laundering political donations through a fund is a slam-dunk affair.

But even more absurd is that the Knesset is so weak intellectually that its members tremble at the prospect of competition from a sharp-tongued journalist.

Since then, “those who have served in the IDF or the National Service” has become an acceptable euphemism for “Jews.” So MK Ben-Ari has fielded a bill which would bar those who did not serve from judicial positions. Theoretically, the bill targets not only Arabs, but also haredim, but they refuse state offices anyway.

In response, Arab MK Tibi fielded an alternative bill barring from judicial positions those who live “in a place that violates international law,” i.e., settlers.

Curiously, the Knesset’s legal advisor approved both bills as technically non-racist, though on numerous occasions the Attorney General has banned such euphemisms, including attempts by Jewish employers to limit job offers to IDF servicemen.

Jewish religious law plainly prohibits any non-Jew from occupying any position of authority in the Land of Israel, including judges, of course.

The bill stipulates that the Bar Association’s two members of the Judicial Selection Committee should come one from the governing party, and another from the opposition. The bill was necessary because Supreme Court justices routinely pressed the Bar Association to appoint only members of the leftist persuasion, thus engaging in blatant politicking.

Livni’s opposition to this commonsense bill shows her to be a part of the ultra-left power conglomerate.

While the move seems contrary to freedom of expression, it is much warranted in Israel. In Western democracies media competition inflicts its own punishment on lying media. No news outlet can afford to lie excessively because it would lose its audience by being continually exposed by competing news sources. Thus there is little need for judicial punishment.

The situation is different in Israel, whose major media outlets all pursue a similar agenda, except perhaps for a single tabloid. There is no political competition; on the contrary, they inflate one another’s lies. Such a quasi-monopoly calls for government intervention, and the proposed bill provides it.

One small charge stands out among the others. An Arab party, UAL, spent NIS5,000 to make plaques for Gaza flotilla activists.

The government traditionally ignores the Knesset when conducting foreign and defense policy.

Meretz and other leftists seek to torpedo the bill. They view boycotts against their own country as a major weapon against the Israeli ‘occupation’ of Palestine.

Netanyahu insisted on terms he knows full well will never be implemented: a unified Jerusalem and an IDF presence in the Jordan Valley (Rabin had insisted on annexation). Livni did not dare to publicly sacrifice those sacred cows, and so had nothing on which to challenge Netanyahu. Instead, she claimed that the Israeli government somehow missed ‘a historic chance’ presented by Peres to hold an international peace conference under Jordanian auspices. As if yet another conference would have solved anything.

The bill will be worthless anyway because small Israel, whose economy is strangled by socialism, cannot impose significant sanctions.