It is customary to say that what distinguishes a good jurist from a good judge is the "judicial temperament." Not every expert in legal law and independent thinker is worthy of sitting on the bench.
What is needed is something extra: the person's manners and their suitability for the nature of the role.
What a shame that there are so many public jobs and positions that do not include threshold criteria for appropriate temperament.
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Take, for example, the position of Minister of Culture.
You would expect the honorable position to be held by people with a "cultural temperament." You can say good things about Miri Regev, but she does not have a cultural temperament. You don't have to be an anti-Israel or arrogant person to feel uncomfortable that this is the figure chosen to head a government ministry, whose very name radiates sacredness.
Even when Regev is right in her patriotic claims, it sounds and looks vulgar.
Whoever appointed "Miri Kpaim" as Minister of Culture knew that she was addicted to attention, unbridled, and enjoyed igniting incendiary incidents.
But politics these days has become so cynical that considerations of "cultural temperament" don't bother anyone. Not even the Prime Minister.
Her story is part of a broader Israeli story - how we became a society where everything is allowed, including outrageous appointments to sensitive positions.
It is not particularly difficult to translate the English concept of Not Done into Hebrew. It is not exactly "not appropriate," "not acceptable," or "not fitting." The point here is something deeper, which can perhaps be related to the popular expression: "we don't do things like that." But as we know, here, doing is also doing.
Miri Regev's temperament is the embodiment of the common Israeli temperament. It is a nervous and domineering temperament, which overshadows all other temperaments. Even our judges are starting to lose their judicial temperament recently.
When Minister Gila Gamliel criticized Minister Regev for her populist statements, the latter replied: "We heard. You mind your own business and I'll mind mine." The meaning is clear: Shut up.
In a sad and ridiculous way, the blunt criticism of the "culture lover" actor Oded Kotler sounded exactly like Regev's blunt response to Gamliel. He also signaled in his words: Shut up - you and your voters.
That's right, left, right, politics, theater, young people, old people, women, men, the press gallery, the fan gallery – all from Miri Regev.
We are all made of the same Israeli temperament, which is the complete opposite of a "judgmental temperament.".
• Oz Almog is a professor of sociology from the Department of Land of Israel Studies at the University of Haifa.
