“You will destroy democracy,” Knesset member Shelly Yachimovich of the Zionist Camp shouted at Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of HaBayit HaYehudi on Sept. 17 during a special recess debate called by the opposition. The title the opposition chose for the debate was “The justice minister’s attack on the High Court and the danger to democracy,” but it soon became clear that much more was involved than an assault on the High Court. 

Standing behind the podium at the plenum, with shouts and interjections from center-left Knesset members in the background, Shaked again and again tried to deliver the message that all her work is practical, respectful and never personal — in contrast with her critics on the left.

Yachimovich’s statement crystallized the cold and considered conduct of the justice minister, who is systematically, quite fundamentally and resolutely succeeding in changing the face of the judicial system in Israel. Shaked is not tempestuous like Minister of Culture Miri Regev, most of whose declarations are empty. Shaked comes to work with an organized list of tasks, and the results speak for themselves.   

That the opposition tried to place the 42-year-old minister on the stake, rather than the prime minister as usually occurs at such forums, attests to how central Shaked has become in the political system.