29.7-23.7: The week of the MAHASH law, Amnon Shashua, tourism in the North, and nursing insurance
The new MAHASH law raises concerns over politically biased enforcement. Meanwhile, Amnon Shashua's departure from Mobileye leaves the company facing an uncertain future.
The new MAHASH law: a dangerous revenge
The Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, requested this week from the Supreme Court an interim injunction to prevent the appointment of the director of the Department for the Investigation of Police Officers (MAHASH) under the new law. While the law has not yet entered into force, petitions for its cancellation are pending. If an injunction is not issued, the government could appoint the new department's leadership immediately.
According to the law's initiator, MK Moshe Saada, the department's future mission centers on revenge: the prosecution of Baharav-Miara. There is no greater dream for the Netanyahu government than to bring the figure who blocked its judicial coup to the interrogation room. While recent legislative blitzes focused on benefits for the Haredim, the new MAHASH law is far more dangerous: it enables politically biased criminal enforcement against police officers, prosecutors, Shin Bet personnel, legal advisors, journalists, and civil society actors. The danger is that these individuals will be exposed to an enforcement body operated by political hands, as the new MAHASH will be removed from the professional oversight of the Attorney General and placed directly under the Ministry of Justice. While there were synergy issues between MAHASH and the State Attorney's Office, solving them by creating a far more severe problem is inappropriate, especially when the improper motive is the law's central purpose.
Mobileye: the dream faded with the dreamer
Scientist and entrepreneur Amnon Shashua resigned a week ago as CEO of Mobileye, the company he founded in 1999, causing the stock to plummet by 15%. Shashua is not an ordinary manager; he is the 'mad professor' who defined the vision of the autonomous vehicle revolution. Investors realized that with him, the 'story' that held the company together is gone.
Without him, Mobileye is just another mediocre company suffering from over-ambition: it struggles to compete with large car manufacturers in its traditional activities, while facing giants like Google, Tesla, and Amazon in its growth sectors. Furthermore, Shashua’s related-party transaction—selling his robotics startup Menti to Mobileye for a billion dollars—added Nvidia to the list of direct competitors. When Shashua led Mobileye, investors believed in a dream; now, the next CEO's task seems impossible.
Tourism business in the North: emergency routine forever
The government extended the declaration of a special situation on the home front until August 11 but neglected to extend the compensation framework for tourism businesses in the North, which are struggling to survive. The emergency has become our daily routine: we have learned to live with missiles, sirens, and closed businesses. This is not only exhausting; it makes basic life impossible, especially when businesses have had no income for months while expenses continue to mount.
One cannot expect a B&B owner in the Golan or a tour guide from Kiryat Shmona to live in an emergency routine forever. Demanding that business owners on the confrontation line hold on for three years without regular income is equivalent to abandoning the businesses that support the North. Their war continues even as the rest of the country operates as usual, and it is the government's duty to support them, as they are expected to rehabilitate the shelled North when quiet returns.
Nursing insurance crisis: a temporary postponement of a catastrophe
This week, 'Calcalist' revealed that out of six potential candidates to manage the nursing insurance of the Clalit Health Fund, only one company—Ayalon, the smallest—approached the tender. The main problem is irresponsible regulatory changes that lowered the threshold for nursing dependency and incentivized the insured to become formally dependent. This, combined with population aging and unhealthy competition, led to a dramatic increase in claims that emptied Clalit's fund.
Now, Ayalon will likely become the manager of the world's largest group nursing insurance policy. But even if it saves the sector for a few years, it will not change anything essential. The state must intervene and create a new model for nursing insurance, or we will be left with nothing.
Arava: the word that makes the occupation pleasant
Two Israelis and four Palestinians were killed last Friday near the village of Tel, when settlers from the Havat Gilad outpost entered the village in Area A. This was not a random event, but part of the government's move to Judaize the West Bank under the whitewashed language of 'legalizing outposts'.
Terms like 'outpost' (ma'ahaz) are used to deceive, as 'settlement' (hitnahalut) carries political baggage. Instead, Jewish terror activists are portrayed as Zionist farmers echoing the romantic pioneer days. However, times have changed. Today, Jews are the sovereign, controlling space through a system that anchors inequality in law. Outposts in Area A do not provide refuge; they are a means to expel a non-Jewish population. In doing so, they endanger the very state established to save Jews from death.
