Israel on the Brink: Understanding the Judicial Overhaul, and the Protests Against It
b'Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\\u2019s proposed law changing the judiciary is described as a reform. To opponents, it\\u2019s a move to gut the independence of the Supreme Court as a check on executive power\\u2014and a move from the playbook of autocrats like Hungary\\u2019s Viktor Orb\\xe1n. The protests that followed are the largest in the country\\u2019s history, and are now stretching into their third month. Ruth Margalit, who is based in Tel Aviv, covered the protests for The New Yorker, and she tells David Remnick that the strength and success of the protests so far has brought a sense of hope for many who were losing faith in the country\\u2019s political future. \\u201cI think there is a sign of optimism. There is this potential for a kind of political realignment,\\u201d she says. \\u201cI do have some friends who were thinking of leaving and suddenly are saying, \\u2018Well, let\\u2019s just see how this plays out.\\u2019 And they suddenly feel that they have a role.\\u201d Remnick also speaks with Margalit\\u2019s father, the political philosopher Avishai Margalit, about demographic and cultural factors driving Israeli politics. The nation has been moving to the right probably since the failure of the Oslo peace accords in the nineteen-nineties, but \\u201cthe new element,\\u201d Avishai thinks, \\u201cis the strong fusion of religion and nationalism,\\u201d elements that were once kept separate in Israel. \\u201cThe current government is utterly dependent on the votes of the religious and the ultra-religious,\\u201d he says. The big unknown, Ruth says, is whether the popular uprising will expand beyond the judicial reforms. \\u201cLet\\u2019s say the fight over democracy is won\\u2014what happens then?\\u201d she says. \\u201cCan we branch out this fight over democracy? Can it include the West Bank and bring an end to the occupation?\\u201d'