Israel's Supreme Court has ruled by a vote of 10-1 that Aryeh Deri cannot serve in Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet because of his criminal convictions.
Deri's Shas Party called the ruling "arbitrary and unprecedented." They are half-right. It is unprecedented simply because no other Prime Minister has appointed a convicted criminal to cabinet. But there is nothing arbitrary about the Court's decision. Criminals cannot serve in Israel's cabinet. Period.
A such, there are those who believe Deri will resign or that Netanyahu will fire him. I cannot see this because this would threaten Netanyahu's hold on power. Besides, from where I sit, Netanyahu wants a confrontation with the Supreme Court as a pretext for stripping them of their powers. As such, I predict he will ignore the ruling, Deri will stay in government and Netanyahu's coalition will put an end to Israel's independent judiciary. As I have argued previously, Netanyahu will do this because he has a vested interest in doing so given his own ongoing criminal case.
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