Netanyahu rejected compromise on October 7 inquiry, analysis says

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a compromise that could have led to a more politically palatable inquiry into the October 7 disaster, according to an analysis in the Jerusalem Post.

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The solution was that instead of High Court President Isaac Amit selecting or running the state inquiry, High Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg could have taken on that role.

The proposed solution involved High Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg taking the lead on the state inquiry, a role initially slated for High Court President Isaac Amit, who is currently at odds with Netanyahu's government.

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Nevertheless, they were willing to go for it to break the standoff.

While opposition parties reportedly found the idea of a conservative judge like Sohlberg leading the inquiry unappealing, they were willing to accept it to resolve the standoff. However, Netanyahu and his government dismissed the compromise without consideration, shifting their criticism from the court's "activist wing" to alleging the entire judicial branch is untrustworthy.

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Netanyahu and the government dismissed it without a second thought, ignoring that Sohlberg is a conservative, and switching from their attack on the court's activist wing to alleging that the entire judicial branch is not trustworthy.

The analysis suggests that the government's true concern is not with the judiciary's perceived activism, but rather with its ability to shape the inquiry's outcomes to avoid findings that could be detrimental to the government. The rejection of Sohlberg, a judge whose conservative credentials are unquestionable, highlights this alleged motive.

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At this point it became clear that Netanyahu and the government's problem with a state inquiry was not activist judges, but their desire to navigate the results to not be overly negative for themselves.