By Aviad Glickman
YNet News
February 24, 2010
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3854204,00.html
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| Beinish. Most difficult period Photo by Avishag Shear-Yeshuv |
Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish on Wednesday bid farewell warmly to former Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and welcomed his replacement, Yehuda Weinstein.
Speaking in an event at the Jerusalem International Convention Center, Beinish expressed her hopes that Weinstein would deal with the challenges facing him as his predecessors had done.
During the event, Mazuz referred for the first time to the sexual harassment complaints filed against Rabbi Mordechai Elon. He said that the question whether to launch a criminal investigation against the rabbi was not on the agenda during his tenure.
"The decision made now is under a different situation," he noted. "Information was received which I didn't have." Mazuz refused to elaborate, saying that the matter was now in the hands of Attorney General Weinstein.
Beinish praised Mazuz for his performance during a particularly uptight period. "Generations of attorney generals are sitting in this auditorium, who have carried this weight during different periods… You are the last link in this respectable chain of links, and it seems that you had a particularly busy and difficult period, perhaps the most difficult," she said.
"So many times during your tenure, you were forced to defend the opinion you presented to the government, which the decision makers did not approve of, to stick to your opinion, to face claims about the need for governability and even to face attempts to prevent the attorney general from intervening and to limit the entire legal system," she said.
'What didn't he have to deal with?'
Beinish added that she views the attorney general role as the most important and difficult one in the law enforcement system. "Few people imagine how difficult the moment is when a senior official from the police or one of the other enforcement systems arrives and presents you with a 'surprise' which is nothing but an evolving bomb, which from that moment on lies in ambush, awaiting your decisions for weeks and months and causing you to lose sleep."
The Supreme Court president noted that Mazuz "had the pleasure" of dealing with such problems and "bombs" throughout his entire tenure. "What didn't he have? Dealing with organized crime, fighting governmental corruption, deciding between security and human rights, making recommendations on appropriate and inappropriate appointments, prosecuting public figures, etc."
She praised him for his endurance while facing many difficulties.
Beinish went on to offer some advice to the new attorney general. She said she believes Weinstein has already begun grasping the burden he has taken upon himself and the importance of his mission.
"Nonetheless," she clarified, "I am certain that you abandoned your work as a successful lawyer with a feeling of a mission and with a great desire to fulfill a mission. Every AG adds his own style to the job. Knowing the legal staff which will be helping you from within the office, and out of my great appreciation to the good will and good spirit in which you have been welcomed by everyone – I have no doubt that you will follow in the glorious footsteps of all the advisors who came before you and resist, in your own way, the difficulties lurking anywhere and everywhere."
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