The gatekeepers of Israeli democracy chalked up several victories in recent days. The most important one was thwarting plans by two of nationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane’s meritorious disciples to run for the Knesset and pollute its benches.

Such a plan could have taken place. The two — Baruch Marzel and Bentzi Gopstein of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party (Jewish Power) — might have been on the ballot had the Supreme Court rejected on Aug. 25 an appeal against their inclusion on the candidates’ list of Otzma Yehudit. The petitioners objected the decision made earlier by the Central Elections Committee to allow Marzel and Gopstein to run in the Sept. 17 elections, despite the attorney general’s recommendation to disqualify the two.

Eight justices out of the nine who made up the panel accepted the petition submitted by the Blue and White party, the Democratic Camp, the Labor party, Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism and a dozen citizens, among them Knesset member Issawi Freij from Meretz, to disqualify Mazrel and Gopstein. Only Justice Noam Solberg rejected the petition. Solberg also joined his colleagues who rejected the petitioners’ request to disqualify the entire Otzma Yehudit party and its leader, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Now, emissaries sent by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are offering Ben-Gvir — and also Moshe Feiglin, chair of the ultra-right Zehut party — cushy jobs in the next government, in exchange for dropping out of the race. Netanyahu fears that Otzma Yehudit will not pass the Knesset-entry threshold of four seats, thus "waste" right-wing votes.