Israel at a Crossroads

Home > Communications > Blog

Israel at a Crossroads

Even as our attention continues to be focused on the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza, the life of Israel (including the political life of the State of Israel) continues on.

Prior to October 7th, 2023, there was great upheaval in Israel about a variety of political issues, but none more than the proposed judicial reforms being offered by Prime Minister Netanyahu's government. While that issue was put on the back burner when the war began, it has reemerged in recent months.

This is a critical issue facing Israel and its understanding of itself as a liberal democracy. These judicial reforms touch on a variety of issues – the selection of judges for the Supreme Court, the role of the attorney general, the balance of power between the executive, legislative, and judicial aspects of Israel. These conversations and proposed reforms touch the heart of Israel's form of government. And while these issues are complicated, they are being played out in day-to-day decisions that are on the front pages of every Israeli newspaper today.

With all of this in mind, I am sharing a video from a recent conference held at the Jewish Theological Seminary called “Israel at a Crossroads”. I plan to highlight several of the presentations from this conference over the course of the coming weeks. Today, we are sharing a talk entitled “Legal Reform or Regime Revolution? Defending Israel's Separation of Powers and Democracy” by Avihai Mandelblit, a former Attorney General of Israel with a long and distinguished career in public service. Professor Mandelblit’s presentation is largely historical---in the best way. He expresses his understanding of the role of the judiciary and of the attorney general within the context of the history of the State of Israel, with a great emphasis on the independence of the attorney general (and the danger of losing that independence through the proposed reforms.) If you want to understand why this matters today, I encourage you to watch and listen to his presentation.