On this week’s podcast, Haaretz New York correspondent Judy Maltz talks to Haaretz Weekly host Allison Kaplan Sommer about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to the U.S. and the unprecedented demonstrations against him on American soil. Thousands of Israeli expats calling the Prime Minister of the Jewish state a “fascist” and a “dictator” on the streets of New York is not a site American Jews are used to, and as Maltz notes, many of them still haven't understood “the gravity, the severity, and the existential crisis” that the judicial overhaul represents for Israelis. “For American Jews, it is much more difficult to make sense of it all,” explains Maltz. “One woman I met at a meeting with Brothers and Sisters in Arms said: 'Israelis are always crying for help, there's terror attacks, or wars, missiles, or an election, there's always some crisis going on.' In a way, they are crying wolf… so Americans don't understand yet that this is something different, something we haven't seen before, an attack on the people from within. But it is starting to seep through." The expats, says Maltz, “understood from day one what this judicial overhaul means... Israelis in the diaspora want to know that there is a place to go back to. I think, that since the Yom Kippur war, there has not been an event that has shaken them up as much as the judicial overhaul."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Constitutional expert Prof. Yaniv Roznai, an associate professor and Vice-Dean at Reichman University's Harry Radzyner Law School - and one of the leading academic voices in the protest movement against the judicial coup - attended the historic hearing at Israel's supreme court this week. After watching the sides debating the petitions against the first judicial overhaul law that the Netanyahu government had passed, Roznai joined Haaretz Weekly host Allison Kaplan Sommer for a discussion about the anti-reasonableness law, the "inappropriate political speech" by judicial overhaul architect MK Simcha Rothman, the attacks by the coalition's attorney on Israel's Declaration of Independence and what the different outcomes of the court session could mean for Israel. Speaking about how the court ruling will impact Israel's future, Roznai finds it hard to believe that the government won't abide by it, but said "It's difficult to predict if the judges will strike down the anti-reasonableness law. It seems there is a majority of judges that would accept the proposition that the court has the authority to strike down basic laws. And this is the most important issue. But then the second part is whether this is the case they will intervene in. And here it's quite difficult to predict". If the government really does decide to ignore a supreme court ruling, Rozani warns, "That would mean complete anarchy." Because, "If the government doesn't abide by the ruling, why would ordinary citizens abide by it? Just imagine what it would mean for our partners in the EU and the U.S. I can't see it happening. It would be a complete destruction of the rule of law".See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After dominating political conversation in Israel for the past eight months, the protest movement against the judicial coup – which has brought millions of Israelis out to the streets – made a strategic decision. In the nationwide municipal elections on October 31, various protest groups will field candidates in mayoral and city council races, hoping that voters will use the local political sphere to send a resolute national message against the Netanyahu government’s attempts to change Israeli democracy. On Haaretz Weekly, two Tel Aviv City Council candidates join host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the bold move. Noah Efron is head of the Green Party – which, together with Meretz and a list of protest activists, is running as the “New Contract” slate in Tel Aviv. He says on the podcast that he believes when we wake up in Israel on November 1, “there will be council members and a number of mayors whose identity was forged primarily politically in these protests. It will be dramatic.” Efron, who served on the Tel Aviv Municipality in the past, also discusses the complexities of integrating the protest movement into the framework of local politics, calling it “an extremely exciting challenge to turn the big words with capital letters like ‘Freedom’ and ‘Democracy’ into policy.” Together with Efron is Inbal Orpaz, a high-tech marketing executive and active member of the tech protest. She talks about what has driven members of her industry – who were previously politically uninvolved, focusing instead on their world of startups and company sales – to become some of the most outspoken and active leaders of the protests. She discusses her motivations for becoming active in the protest movement – and her recent decision to run for city councilor alongside Efron. “When this government was elected, I felt as if all of my identities were under attack: as a woman, as a secular person, as someone who’s part of the tech sector. I understood if I want to live here – and I want to live here – to live in Israel and to live in Tel Aviv, I must fight for the future of this country. Living in the place they want this country to become is not an option for me.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Israel wrestled with the assault of COVID-19 on its health care system, politics and public life, Professor Haggai Levine, an epidemiologist and chairman of Israel’s Association of Public Health Physicians, became a familiar face on Israeli television screens. Today, Levine has moved from battling the coronavirus to fighting the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul. He is a founding member of the “White Coats” collective, a grass-roots organization of doctors fighting the judicial coup, and has, each week, spoken at the mass protests against the overhaul, delivering the message that “in order for Israel's citizens to be healthy, we need a healthy government and a healthy democracy.” Speaking to Haaretz Weekly host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Levine said that in his view, the threat to democracy - and the related threat to public health - “feels worse than the pandemic in terms of how we feel and in terms of what the future looks like.” He attributes this to the fact that this time, the country is facing an “internal threat” instead of battling together against a hostile nation or a rampaging virus. Levine notes that he wasn’t totally taken by surprise by the current crisis since “we know from history, that after pandemics, there are often aftershocks… I expected that we would have several very tough years in Israel, and that there would be an unstable government.” In addition to other reasons that the overhaul is bad for health in Israel, he discusses the alarming brain drain statistics regarding the number of young doctors planning to emigrate after their training if the overhaul moves forward, and his colleagues who are training abroad “and are now extending the fellowship because they feel it's not a good time to go back to Israel.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank continues to intensify, Haaretz West Bank correspondent Hagar Shezaf joins host Allison Kaplan Sommer to share her experiences covering the deadly incidents in Hawara, Turmus Aya, Um Safr, and, over the past weekend, the clashes in the village of Burqa that resulted in the killing of 19-year-old Qosai Jammal Mi'tan. Two settlers are suspected in the shooting. Friction between settlers living in the outposts that ring and encroach on Palestinian villages is nothing new, Shezaf explains, but their level of violence has been on the rise since the ascendance of the Netanyahu government, whom she says seem to be emboldening the perpetrators.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Israeli democracy is facing its biggest challenge since the founding of the state, after the Knesset passed the first law in its package of legislation designed to cripple the judicial branch. Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, joins Haaretz Weekly host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss what comes next in the battle between Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which appears determined to move forward with its “radical and extreme” judicial overhaul, and the protest movement that has been battling the move for the past 30 weeks. Plesner looks ahead to the Knesset session in the fall and, before that, the upcoming petitions against the law in the Supreme Court (sitting as the High Court of Justice). He also reacts to Netanyahu’s refusal to state – in response to a question he was asked on both CNN and Fox News – that he would abide by any potential Supreme Court ruling striking down the reasonableness law that was passed last week. “I think it’s despicable and a new low,” he says of Netanyahu’s remarks. “Israel is a democracy and the basic character of democracies is the rule of law, human rights, an independent judiciary, and everyone in the land – including the politicians – obeying court decisions. And Netanyahu was elusive. I think this is very bad.” The fact that the prime minister “is conveying such a message is extremely reckless and disappointing,” he adds. Plesner, a military reservist in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, also discusses the “heartbreaking” choice by his fellow soldiers to suspend their service due to opposition of the overhaul, as well as his recent call to the United States and American Jews not to give up on Israel. To American Jews who insist that internal Israeli affairs are none of their business, he counters that “of course it's your business if Israel ceases to be a Jewish and democratic state, and it turns into a religious ethno-nationalistic state – this will end the relationship between Israel and the majority of Diaspora Jewry.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As former US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk experienced one of the most devastating moments of the country’s history - the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, during the time of Israel’s deep divisions over the Oslo Peace Accords.  And yet, Indyk tells Haaretz Weekly host Allison Kaplan Sommer, the current split over the judicial overhaul, following the passage of its first piece of legislation on Monday, is a “more fundamental” crisis. One that he says has left him “heartsick.” “Israel was born as a Jewish and democratic state. And throughout its history, for 75 years, there has always been that tension between its Jewish nature and its democratic nature and they remained in balance for those 75 years. Now they are out of balance.” Indyk said he is “deeply worried” both for the future of the US-Israel relationship and for Israel’s security after it has become clear that that the government’s unilateral actions have “undermined Israel's deterrent capability” given the decision of crucial fighter pilots to suspend their military service in protest of the overhaul.  “I think it's a very dark day in Israel's history,” Indyk said. “And I know that the Iranians in particular and their proxies around Israel's borders, and Israel's other enemies, were just sitting back and watching this in amazement, as Israel tears itself apart.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he says, has been “taken hostage” by the far-right parties in his coalition. On the podcast, Indyk also discusses his statements in a recent New York Times column in which he endorses an end to the $3.8 billion in U.S. military aid that Israel receives annually.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Among the numerous mass protests against the Israeli government’s controversial legislative moves to weaken Israel’s judicial system, the most influential effort has come from reservists in the country’s elite military units threatening to refuse to report for duty. One of the reservists, Yiftach Golov, tells Haaretz Weekly host Allison Kaplan Sommer that he and his comrades in the group Brothers and Sisters in Arms – who are visibly on the front lines of the protest movement – are determined to do all they can to fight what he calls Benjamin Netanyahu’s “government of destruction.” “We haven’t even moved our queen yet in this chess game,” Golov warns. “The fact that we are threatening not to volunteer in Israel’s elite special units is only the beginning. We have much more ammunition in our arsenal.” Golov rejects critics in the government camp who say the defense of the country shouldn’t be put at risk for political goals. As a soldier, he says, he vowed to fight any force that was putting the survival of the country at risk – even when the threat isn’t an external one. “It’s a crazy situation, but right now, our enemy comes from within. ... I feel that I’m serving my country for exactly the same values” as on the battlefield. Also on the podcast, Haaretz defense analyst Amos Harel talks about the reservists’ actions, and their impact on the government’s behavior. Harel says Netanyahu is “extremely concerned” about the reservists’ actions – particularly those of its elite fighter pilots, who are vital to the Israel Defense Forces’ combat readiness in case of attack, and the coalition is struggling with its response to a phenomenon that he says is “getting bigger” by the day.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the Israeli streets explode in protests against the renewed effort by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to “neuter the judiciary,” Haaretz English editor-in-chief Esther Solomon joins host Allison Kaplan Sommer on Haaretz for an overview and explanation of the charged state of Israeli politics. The current push in the Knesset to eliminate the “reasonableness standard” which allows the High Court of Justice to block irrational government decisions has been a dramatic turning point, Solomon says, and is just the first step in executing a full overhaul to weaken Israel’s courts in favor of its politicians. It is all part of Netanyahu’s efforts “to try and appease the most extreme members of his government ever since he set up… the most theocratic and ideologically pro-settler government that Israel has ever seen. And what happens if you sit down with the far-right is that you end up being pulled towards where they are.” Also on the podcast, Haaretz writer Anat Peled tells the story behind the kidnapping of high-profile Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli citizen who is being held by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq, why Israeli academics like Tsurkov take the risks they do when researching the Middle East, and the efforts underway to bring her home safely,See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite the weakened position of Russian President Vladimir Putin following the weekend’s aborted coup, chances that Israel’s government will change its policy in the Russia-Ukraine conflict are extremely low, says Haaretz senior correspondent Anshel Pfeffer, who has covered the war from the ground. “Israel has - both on a moral level and on a strategic level - been making a mistake by staying on the sidelines and keeping its relationship intact with the Russians,” Pfeffer tells host Allison Kaplan Sommer on Haaretz Weekly podcast. In a wide-ranging conversation, Sommer and Pfeffer, author of the book “Bibi: The Life and Turbulent Times of Benjamin Netanyahu” discuss producer Arnon Milchan’s testimony in the Prime Minister’s corruption trial that kicked off in Brighton, England this week, his sinking numbers in the polls, and the renewed effort to reboot the controversial judicial revolution. He also addresses the violent attacks on Palestinian towns by West Bank settlers in the wake of a deadly terror attack, and the response by far-right ministers in the government “who openly support this kind of vigilantism.” While they pay lip service against settlers taking the law into their own hands, “We know what Minister of National Missions Orit Struck, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have said in the past. And you can see it now in their body language when they're not saying it: that they're perfectly okay with, with the settlers going on rampage. So the only difference between this government (and those in the past) is that it's out in the open.”    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.