What would happen if Israel's Supreme Court invalidated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial reform and then refused to accept the ruling?
A question discussed by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in light of what it sees as an increase in the chances of a large-scale constitutional crisis in Israel, especially after the Netanyahu government rejected the judicial reform plan proposed by Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Herzog's plan was a compromise designed to replace the government's far-reaching scheme that would weaken the judicial system and give unfettered powers to the government and the Knesset.
Tibon said that the US administration and the main American Jewish organizations bet on Herzog's plan, noting that the Netanyahu government's rejection of it puts Israel's supporters in the United States in front of a bleak reality, as Netanyahu's failure to retreat from his refusal means that Israel is about to enter an era of unknown.
One month from now, it may not be clear who the IDF, police and ISA will be ordering.
Outlook
The Knesset, where Netanyahu's far-right government enjoys a four-seat majority, will approve the controversial judicial reform, Tibbon said, ignoring warnings by the governor of the Bank of Israel that it would harm the country's economy as well as a warning by a former head of Israel's Shin Bet security service that he would tear apart the agencies responsible for Israel's security.
He added that a final vote in the Knesset on part of the legislation would be held as early as next week.
This will be immediately followed by opponents of the plan appealing to Israel's Supreme Court demanding the repeal of the legislation, something that leading legal experts, including former prosecutors and Supreme Court justices, believe the court will indeed repeal it on the grounds that it contradicts Israel's identity as a democracy.
The ruling coalition could not have imagined how it would turn out as its opponents were torn apart and exhausted, but things are different now that mass street demonstrations have lasted 11 consecutive weeks.
The moment of truth
If the legislation is repealed, some of Netanyahu's coalition allies, especially from ultra-Orthodox religious parties, will demand that the prime minister ignore the court's ruling, put the judges in their true size, and reject their ruling.
Israel may face an unprecedented constitutional crisis, with widespread civil disobedience and thousands of reservists refusing to show up for military service.
Such scenarios may have been fanciful, terrible, and detached from reality just months ago, and even last week, there was hope that a reasonable settlement would help Israel avoid such a future, but at the moment there is a real possibility that Israel will enter that tunnel, and it takes him to prepare a plan to deal with that possibility.