Political dreying is generally unrewarding and political dreying in Israel is especially unrewarding. Sometimes it seems like the only possible source of pleasure in this area is spite.

Yesterday, I got some spiteful pleasure. A prominent right-of-center research institute in Jerusalem assembled a gathering of jurists, academics and politicians to discuss the constitution. I got to speak after a baritone-voiced former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (BVFCJ). Although BVFCJ preceded the era of insane political intervention by the Court, he is an outspoken defender of the Court and the method by which it stacks itself. He is also exceedingly pompous and imperturbable.

I gave my drasha on the appointments process and the dangers of hyper-activism by the court. BVFCJ grew increasingly apoplectic. When he was given an opportunity to make closing remarks, he asked rhetorically and with evident disdain: Is the American system, in which the president appoints judges from his own ideological camp, more democratic? Is the German system, in which judges alternate between two parties, preferable? He was speaking so self-importantly slowly that I had ample time to interject: Yes. That is preferable to our system in which judges alternate between a single party.

He was, um, unhappy. But for me, it was pure spiteful pleasure. You can fargin me that much occasionally, no?