Running for Justice Minister
Levin has not said this himself. Israel Hayom and Ynet report, citing people around him, that he plans a second term at Justice to seat conservative Supreme Court judges and finish the overhaul, contingent on Likud forming the next government.
Who they are
Yariv Levin is justice minister and deputy prime minister, and the author of the government’s judicial overhaul. He was born in the Katamon quarter of Jerusalem in 1969 to Aryeh Levin, a Hebrew University professor and an Israel Prize laureate in linguistics, and Gail Kaplan, who ran the Asia and Africa department at the National Library and came from a family of Irgun fighters. Menachem Begin was his godfather. He finished at the Boyar school in Jerusalem and served in Unit 8200 of the Intelligence Corps as an Arabic translator, later commanding a track at its translation school.
He took a law degree at the Hebrew University and practised commercial law. He co-founded the Mahatz faction in the Israel Bar Association in 1999, was elected its deputy head and served as acting head of the bar. His party work began in the Likud students’ cell in Jerusalem; he set up the Likud branch in Modi’in in 1997 and later chaired it, and he represented opponents of the Gaza disengagement in legal proceedings. In 2006 Benjamin Netanyahu put him in charge of the party’s unit scrutinising the Olmert government.
In the Knesset he has chaired the House Committee and the foreign affairs and defence committee. He returned to government as justice minister and deputy prime minister, also holding the religious services and labour portfolios.
Positions and record
Judiciary: Political appointments to the bench; an override clause.
Governance: Knesset supremacy over the High Court.
Coalition: Keeper of agreements with Haredi partners.
Where they stand
Breaks with the party line on 2 issues, marked below.