Shai Nitzan, a red flag for the Right, named as new state attorney

The State Attorney Office's search committee, headed by Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein, decided on Monday to recommend Deputy Attorney-General Shai Nitzan for the position of Israel's next state attorney. Nitzan is slated to replace current State Attorney Moshe Lador, whose six-year term in office will end in December. His appointment is pending the cabinet's approval.

The committee chose Nitzan over three other candidates: former Deputy State Attorney for Criminal Affairs Yehoshua Lemberger, Jerusalem District Court Judge Zvi Segal and Tel Aviv District Court Judge Avi Zamir. Nitzan was considered the frontrunner for the position throughout the committee's deliberations.

In the brief presented to Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who will bring the nomination before the cabinet, the committee stated that in its opinion Nitzan was best suited to meet the challenges facing the State Attorney's Office in the future.

According to the brief, when he spoke before the committee Nitzan "was compelling in his commitment to formulate and lead changes in the State Attorney's Office, following professional recommendations to that effect. The professional and personal recommendations by prominent members of the legal community backing [Nitzan's] nomination were extraordinary."

Nitzan, 53, was born and raised in Jerusalem. He graduated from the Netiv Meir Yeshiva High School and then joined the Israel Defense Forces' Paratroopers Brigade. He has a dual bachelor's degree in law and history and a dual master's degree in law and political science, all from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His is married with five children.

Nitzan joined the Justice Ministry in 1989, and worked closely with former Chief Justices Aharon Barak and Dorit Beinish. In 1997 he was named head of the defense and security cases department at the State Attorney's Office. Between 2002 and 2004 he served as head of the special operations department, and in 2004 he was named deputy attorney-general.

Nitzan made his name by heading the High Court of Justice department at the State Attorney's Office, and headed several high-profile cases, including that of "Prisoner X," involving the suicide of former Mossad agent gone rogueBen Zygier, and the case againstAnat Kam, a former journalist accused of compromising national security by leaking classified documents to a reporter.

He was also involved in a high-profile petition filed against the defense establishment over its surgical strikes and targeted killings of terrorists in the Palestinian territories, which was rejected; as well as a petition filed against the Shin Bet security agency over its interrogation methods, which resulted in a change that limited their scope.

Nitzan was harshly criticized for supporting the plea bargain that was offered to former President Moshe Katsav prior to his 2010 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges. Nitzan said at the time that the prosecution was not sure it would be able to secure a conviction, which was why it opted for a plea bargain.

"It's very easy, in hindsight, to say, 'Why did you pursue a plea bargain-' This was a very difficult case and we were not at all sure of the result," he said after Katsav's conviction.

Nitzan gained notoriety among the political Right over his insistence to fully enforce incitement laws, which saw the State Attorney's Office file dozens of indictment charges against settlers in Judea and Samaria. Extreme right-wing activists claimed he was persecuting settlers and would often stage protest rallies outside his home.

He was placed under police protection after radical right-wing activists posted a YouTube video urging his assassination.

The harsh criticism leveled at Nitzan by the Right over what was perceived as his "anti-settler" policies prompted 20 government MKs to present the Knesset with a petition calling for his dismissal.

"[The State Attorney's Office] formed a committee and named Shai Nitzan to head it. For years he has been focusing resources in favor of something that looks more like the political persecution of a specific sector that happens to be part of the political Right, than actual law enforcement," MK Yariv Levin (Likud) said at the time.

A right-wing source quoted by Army Radio said that since it was known that Weinstein favored Nitzan as Lador's replacement, the search committee's work was tainted and the "process was rigged." Weinstein has dismissed reports of favoritism, saying they were unfounded.

Tourism Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beytenu) told Army Radio on Monday that he is likely to vote against Nitzan's nomination: "Regardless of the man in question, I vehemently oppose this system, this unacceptable practice, where some search committee decides on one person and he is the one presented to the cabinet as the only choice."

"This is just another characteristic of a system that has effectively stripped the ministers, who were elected by the public to promote policy, from their authority, and has given clerks the power to name senior public officials," he said.

"I will vote against this system and against this nomination. I will demand that [the committee] present the [justice] minister or the government with three candidates, so that the minister or the government can chose whoever they deem as the best candidate for the position."

One of the most formidable challenges Nitzan faces is the need to rehabilitate the State Attorney's Office's bruised public image, which has suffered several blows following the botched prosecution of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the recent acquittal of Yisrael Beytenu headAvigdor Liebermanand the recent targeting of a Tel Aviv District prosecutor by a crime family under investigation.