What Problem Were Reformers Solving?

Until October 7, Israel’s politics were consumed by the fight over the government’s judicial reform proposals. The issue drove hundreds of thousands of Israelis to the streets in protest. It triggered all the anxieties of right and left, to sharpen class and ethnic and cultural divides, to raise fears over minority rights and the future of Israeli democracy.

But in all those stormy months, there was very little in the way of serious and sober debate about Israeli institutions, checks and balances, judicial overreach and the dangers of an over-powerful executive. The substantive questions seemed to be pushed aside by the culture wars.

The judicial reform was to some degree frozen - or at least dramatically slowed - in March 2023 after massive strikes broke out throughout the country. The October 7 massacre and ensuing wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran relegated it to the bottom of the public agenda.

But it never actually went away. Fights between the government and the High Court and between the government and the attorney general have only worsened, bills now stand on the Knesset docket that seek to advance in piecemeal fashion different elements of the original reform.

To understand what happened - the original proposal, the great explosion of Israeli politics that ensued, and where it might all be headed - we turned to one of the architects of the original reform, Moshe Koppel, a professor emeritus of computer science and founder and chairman of the Kohelet Forum.

It was a long conversation, often contentious and deeply interesting. We hope you find it helpful.

This episode is sponsored by Iris Engelson and dedicated to the memory of her friend Sharon Kass (z”l) who passed away two years ago at the age of 57 on 29 Kislev, December 19.

According to her friends, Sharon was fiercely independent; unpretentious and unflappable; brilliant and deeply curious; at once confident and modest; wickedly funny; and absolutely devoted to her family, to her friends and colleagues, to the many young people she mentored, to the Jewish people, and to the Jewish state.

A cause particularly dear to Sharon’s heart was the International Birding and Research Center in Eilat, where she had volunteered. The bird sanctuary there is open to the public every day of the year with free admission.

May her memory be a blessing.

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Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.