
Ask Haviv Anything
Episode 7 - Judicial Reform: Is tribalism eating Israeli democracy alive?
What if everybody is right on judicial reform? Israel's highest court is immensely and unreasonably powerful. But if it is weakened, what other checks stand in the way of the tyranny of the majority, that great Achilles' heel of democracy since the dawn of Western civilization?
This question is especially urgent for Israel, whose politics are more Middle Eastern than Western, more tribal than ideological.
It's not unreasonable to weaken the court, but it would be disastrous to do so without broad trust and buy-in, and without addressing the desperate lack of other checks and balances in the country's constitutional order.
It's time for a more serious left-wing critique and a more responsible right-wing reform. Anything less will only cause harm.
Thank you to Jason and Lauriel Klinghoffer for sponsoring this episode.
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A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur