The new Justice Minister is Daniel Friedman, a law professor at Tel-Aviv University. This is a mixed blessing.

Friedman has been an outspoken critic of the Court, ever since Beinish blocked the appointment of his friend, Nili Cohen, several years ago. One of the critics of the Court in the Knesset told me today how Friedman would call him at all hours haranguing him about the the Court's injustices -- but only after the Nili Cohen incident, never before. This is the good news.

The bad news is that Friedman doesn't have much taste for religious Jews. One of his campaigns in the past was to go after Bar-Ilan for preferring religious faculty. One of the Mafdal-Ichud MKs told me today that he was very distressed by the appointment and expects Friedman to "harass us endlessly".

Unfortunately, once these kinds of guys get into power, they usually fall in line with the legal establishment but they don't often discover a newfound fondness for settlers and haredim.