This week, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation considered Knesset member Yaakov Peri’s proposal to reduce the period before people leaving the security forces (the Israel Defense Forces, police, Shin Bet and Mossad) can enter politics from three years to one. The "cooling-off" law stipulates that retired security establishment members must wait three years from the day they leave their posts before they are permitted to run in any kind of political elections or participate in any formal political activity. The declared purpose of the law is to make sure that there is no conflict of interest between an individual's military activity and future political aspirations.

Before the committee held its vote, Peri, a former director of the Shin Bet, met with most of the committee’s members, including its chairwoman, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. He left these talks with the impression that they agreed that the law kept Israeli public figures of the highest quality from entering politics. Peri stressed to the committee members how important it was for their vote to be based on the issue at hand, rather than on narrow political motives.

His conversation with Shaked was especially positive, at least as far as Peri was concerned. She listened to what he had to say and did not reject the issue out of hand. At the moment of truth, however, the proposal did not pass. Likud ministers form a majority on the committee, and they voted against the proposal en masse.

Of course, this was not the first time that the committee has rejected a law for reasons that have nothing to do with the law itself. In this case, they opposed the law because it runs counter to their chief's mindset. In other words, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu objects to any changes to the law. As long as it is up to him, Netanyahu will not allow for any reduction of the lengthy cooling-off period for senior defense officials, because the current law fits his approach to realpolitik like a glove. It does everything it can to prevent new political rivals, who might threaten Netanyahu’s standing, from entering the political arena.