It is Saturday night, the 8th of July - and things in Israel are heading towards a very intense week - and likely even more intense months to follow. I haven't been writing too much lately even though there is definitely no shortage of material. But I thought I would cover off a few topics with a bit of my usual spin. I'll deal with the current legislation being advanced by the Israeli government, the protests against it, Bibi's trial, Jenin and maybe some more upbeat topics...like sports, travel and whiskey...
The "Legal Revolution" or "Judicial Reforms"
As you might recall, the current Justice Minister, Yariv Levin, held a press conference in January 2023 to announce that he was going to be putting forward a series of bills in the Knesset to "overhaul" the judicial system. I have discussed these bills previously. The short summary is that the combined effect of Levin's initiatives would be to reduce dramatically the power and independence of the Supreme Court in Israel, and the Israeli judiciary in general. Power would be transferred, effectively, to the governing coalition which would be able to advance legislation, make appointments and take other actions without concern about judicial review or interference. I am not going to rehash the full legal discussion here over each of the initiatives - perhaps that is a discussion for another day - though you can find numerous articles about the pros and cons of the different pieces of legislation on various online sites.
Much of the Israeli public was shocked by Levin's proposals. The proposals were not a major part of the Likud platform in the election campaign and this was not an announcement to convene a committee or begin a public consultation process as to how best to reform the judicial system. Rather it was a shot across the bow by Levin - announcing that he was simply going to proceed to eviscerate the current Israeli justice system.
Protests began across Israel, which ultimately led Prime Minister Netanyahu to put the Levin proposals on hold until after Pesach, Yom Hazikaron, Yom Haatzmaut, and other Israeli holidays and days of observance. Netanyahu agreed to a proposal to hold consultations under the auspices of the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog - to see if agreement could be reached on some changes to these proposals. However, it seems apparent that Levin and his supporters had no real intention of diluting the proposals. The "consultations" failed, as planned, and the governing coalition is now bringing the legislation back to the Knesset.
The first piece of legislation is the "reasonability law." In Israel, judges have developed a precedent for administrative review of legislation and/or governmental actions, where the actions taken can be challenged and overturned if they are deemed "extremely unreasonable." (Like the "patently unreasonable" standard for judicial review in Canada by a court in examining the decision of an administrative tribunal). The Levin proposal is to legislate the cancellation of this line of authority and bar judges from using "reasonability" as a grounds for judicial review of governmental action or authority. It is a major incursion into the sphere of judicial independence and it is intended to weaken the judiciary dramatically.
The other pieces of legislation are waiting in the wings. This "reasonability law" is more or less the same bill that Levin proposed back in January - despite the "consultation" process.
There is a great deal of opposition to this bill, which is seen by many as a major attack on the independence of the judiciary - and thus, a major attack on Israeli democracy, which, like any vibrant democracy, relies on an independent judiciary to remain democratic. The bill is scheduled for a first reading in the Knesset on Monday July 10, 2023. In response, the protest movement has called for massive demonstrations across the country including efforts to close highways, the airport, and other commercial activity if the bill passes its first reading. (Like in Canada, the bill requires three readings to pass). As of tonight, a range of companies and other organizations have started announcing that they will support the protests. Hard to predict what is going to happen, but it looks like it is going to be very chaotic.
The Netanyahu coalition is also planning to proceed with a piece of legislation that is even more outrageous. As you may have heard, the Israeli Bar Association recently held an election to elect its president. A candidate supported by Bibi and his Likud party was roundly defeated by a candidate who opposes the judicial changes. The Israeli Bar Association is the equivalent of the Law Society of Ontario (and other places) - an independent body, though a creature of enabling legislation - that governs lawyers and their conduct. In response to the loss of the election, the governing coalition announced that it was putting forward legislation to disband the Israeli Bar Association, set up a different organization - and appoint the President. Unfortunately, I am not making this up. Part of the Likud justification is that the Bar Association is allowed to nominate two candidates to sit on the Judicial Appointments Committee - and Bibi and Levin would rather have pro-Bibi committee members (even though they could not get them elected). But disbanding the Bar Association? Seriously? Unfortunately, this is reminiscent of legislation that one might find in 1930s Germany. If this bill passes a first reading in the Knesset, I would imagine that Israeli lawyers will pull out all the stops to fight this. We might see courts shut down, lawyers on a general strike - and all kinds of other protest measures.
Just these two pieces of proposed legislation are causing so much rancour that there is already a sense that all hell is about to break loose. But the government also has a whole series of other bills that it wants to pass. I am not going to go through all of them now - but the overall effect of the proposed legislation is odious.
The Demonstrations
Demonstrations against the current government's proposed legislation have been taking place since Levin's announcement. The demonstrations peaked just prior to Bibi announcing a temporary freeze of the judicial overhaul. Now that the legislation is being brought back, the demonstrations have been ramping up.
Early this year, things were almost uniformly non-violent. The Israeli police responded in fairly mild fashion. There were few arrests and very few incidents of violence, police brutality or major confrontations.
Since then, the extreme right elements of the current coalition have been calling on the police to expand the use of force against protesters (even though the protests have been non-violent). The police chief refused to accede to these orders and resigned. He was replaced by a police chief more sympathetic to the current government and the police have begun using water canons and greater force to disperse protests. There have also been incidents of pro-government supporters showing up at protests and attacking protesters. There were three incidents of car rammings this week by pro-Bibi supporters attacking anti-government protestors. Several protesters were hurt, some seriously. So far, none of the attackers have been charged.
The former police chief warned that police escalation in the use of force would eventually bring about increasingly widespread protests - which might even become more violent. I guess we will see what happens in the coming weeks. If the government proceeds with its plans to enact the "reasonableness law" and disband the Israeli Bar Association, I think things here are likely to get very crazy and unpredictable. I'm not actually convinced that even Bibi will actually proceed with all of these plans but he seems to want to get something passed to appease his far right coalition partners.
Jenin, Terrorism and Pogroms
Over the past few months, Israel has faced a dramatic rise in terrorist attacks on civilians, especially in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") but also in other areas. Much of this violence was tied to terrorist groups based in Jenin, a city and refugee camp in the Territories. As you may have read, Israel launched a fairly large scale military operation in Jenin last Sunday to fight back against this wave of terrorism. It was a short operation that ended Tuesday night. Large caches of weapons were confiscated. Several members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were killed and some were arrested. It is unclear whether this incursion will have accomplished any of its goals but Bibi's coalition members were urging Bibi to take some type of action in the face of a widespread string of attacks.
Aside from Palestinian terrorism against civilians in Judea and Samaria - and in other areas in Israel, there have also been several attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians. Some of these attacks have involved looting of Palestinian villages, beatings of civilians and other violence. Many Israelis have called these attacks "pogroms" and have urged the Israeli police to arrest and prosecute those responsible. A small number of settlers have been arrested. I'm not sure what charges, if any, have been formalized.
Some of Bibi's coalition members, including Ben-Gvir and Smotrich in particular, but also others, have been sympathetic to the settlers and dismissive of any attempts to punish the perpetrators. This is also something that may escalate dramatically in the coming weeks and months - the level of violence in Judea and Samaria - going both ways. Extremist Palestinian groups are calling for a "third intifada" and settler groups are calling for increased use of force against Palestinians. Let's just say I haven't heard any rosy predictions.
Bibi's Trial
In the midst of all of this, Netanyahu's criminal trial has been plodding along. I have not been attending the trial and so I only have bits of information coming from released parts of testimony and the analysis of several commentators.
A couple of weeks ago, the judges hearing the case apparently called on both sides to try and negotiate a deal of some sort - and suggested that it would be "difficult" for the prosecution to succeed in proving bribery in at least one of the cases.
On the other hand, the key state witness, Arnon Milchen, gave testimony over the past couple of weeks about the various gifts that he gave to Bibi and what he got in return. Milchen seems to have suggested that he is still good friends with Bibi. He testified remotely in London - where Sara Netanyahu showed up to watch. Before the start of one day of Milchen's testimony, she gave him a big hug and a kiss - trying to show the judges that Milchen only gave the Netanyahus all the gifts because they were such good friends.
According to some analysts, Milchen was easily manipulated by Bibi's lawyers during cross examination and wound up giving dramatically different testimony than the evidence he gave investigators during the initial investigation. This is a problem for the prosecutors who have been relying on Milchen as a reluctant "state prosecution witness."
If there is no deal, this trial might still continue on for two or three more years, according to some analysts. It sounds very entertaining but hard to predict what will happen. I still stand by my original prediction that there will probably be some kind of deal before there is ever a final verdict - or Bibi's governing coalition will succeed in legislating his legal problems out of existence. That being said, Bibi's defence may have helped themselves quite a bit by taking advantage of this reluctant state witness - or perhaps, by working with him outright.
Sports News
As you might have heard - it has been a great year for Israeli football (soccer to those of us from the other side of the pond). First, the Under 20 men's team wound up taking 3rd place in the U20 World Cup. That was incredible - especially Israel's huge upset win over Brazil in the quarter finals. After that, Israel's U21 team made it to the semi-finals in the U21 Euros. The team was beaten soundly by England - but was a very respectable showing. As a result, Israel's national soccer team has made it into the Olympic games which will take place in Paris in 2024. Now that is exciting for Israeli football fans.
Aside from the odd football game - or soccer - whatever, I haven't really watched much in the way of sports, since it is off-season for ice hockey and NFL football. I did watch the Blue Jays this afternoon (night time in Israel) - as they were "no-hit" by the lowly Detroit Tigers. The Jays are doing reasonably well but I have not been watching very many games. Difficult to do with the time change. Perhaps I will have the chance to see a few games - or attend in person when I am back in Toronto next week.
I suppose the really big news in sports this year - which has nothing to do with my blog, is the play of generational superstar Shohei Ohtani. I haven't seen him play this year - but, as you may have seen or heard - he is among the league leaders in batting average, home runs, hits, pitching average, strikeouts,...There are very few players in baseball who pitch and also play regularly on the offensive side of the field. His accomplishments so far this year are super impressive and have led people to start comparing him to the great Babe Ruth. I think it is early for that - but that gives you a sense of how dramatic his statistics have been.
Israeli Whiskey
I am not sure if I discussed Israeli whiskey previously, but even if I have, I will mention the M & H Distillery once more. M & H stands for "Milk and Honey." This single malt distillery in Tel-Aviv has been making some terrific whiskey - including whiskies that have won worldwide whiskey competitions. I had a great time visiting their distillery recently - and I would strongly recommend a tour there on your next visit to Israel - if you enjoy some decent whiskey. The accompanying cheese and bread plate is also pretty tasty. It's a kosher place - closed on Shabbat of course. The actual whiskies are sold by the bottle and are not super cheap but the tour and tasting is priced reasonably and is lots of fun. And educational.
Other Travel
As you might know, there are several discount airlines that fly to different destinations in Europe from Israel. Many of these flights cost less than the price of one night in a hotel here. We recently flew to Rome, Italy on Wizzair. I can't say that the flight itself was an enjoyable experience. Wizzair is about as "bare-bones" as it gets - they don't even serve free water on the 3.5 hour flight - and a "basic" ticket only allows travellers on the plane with a small knapsack. If you want to add a trolley type carry on bag - you pay about as much as the cost of the ticket for the bag.
On the other hand, Rome is such a fantastic place to visit that the short flight itself becomes secondary. I should mention that there are quite a large number of Kosher restaurants now in Rome - including pizza and other dairy places, meat restaurants and even a "Lybian Kosher Restaurant" - called "Little Tripoli." Rome also has more than 10 active synagogues with daily minyans - and a Jewish museum.
We certainly visited all of the major tourist sites in Rome as well - and had some fantastic coffee, gelato, food and wine - all over the city - but there is quite a bit more going on now in terms of Jewish culture than there was the last time I visited - though I have to say that was quite a few years ago.
That's about it for now - I hope you have found some of this interesting - and I wish everyone a great summer. Back in Toronto shortly (if I can get out of the Israeli airport with all of the planned demonstrations) so I may not have another update for a while but I am sure that there is bound to be quite a bit of news coming out of Israel in the months ahead.
