Israeli Judicial Reform
Reflections on Israel’s political crisis.
At some point, Israelis must negotiate a genuine compromise on legal reform. Otherwise, the issue will continue tearing the country apart for decades to come.
Israel’s judiciary needs balance. But a rash change is likely only to upset further Israel’s fragile equilibrium, and possibly bring down the regime itself.
A ḥaredi rabbi and editor who also clerked on the Supreme Court, Pfeffer is uniquely positioned to talk about a major aspect of the current crisis.
Israel’s parliamentary system produces weak governments that are increasingly liable to capture by minority parties, who have every incentive to indulge their most radical plans.
Israel’s court is abnormally powerful and has caused half the nation to lose faith in its government. Reform will help, as long as it doesn’t cause the other half to do the same.
Why the international obsession with the country’s judicial reforms?
Nissim of Girona on the separation of powers.
It knows what it opposes, but can rarely articulate what it supports.
Change is necessary and inevitable. But it must not amplify division or open the nation up to unintended consequences.
The rule of law isn’t the same as the rule of lawyers.
Here are excerpts from some of our favorite conversations last year, with subjects including Jewish life in Ukraine, Arabs and the Holocaust, China’s Haifa port, and more.
The member of Knesset and architect of the effort to reform Israel’s judiciary speaks about the issue.