The world of Israeli jurisprudence is so surreal that you have to pinch yourself to believe what you see. This week, the country’s Supreme Court first struck down a constitutional amendment, then declared judicial authority to remove a sitting prime minister. Michael Doran and Gadi Taub explain what the judges are up to, and what the consequences may be. Because apart from judicial theory, these decisions have political implications for the war: they threaten to throw Israel back into the controversies about judicial reform that tore the country apart before October 7.
Meanwhile the war may be widening in the north following the assassination of Hamas’s West Bank chief, Saleh al-Arouri. The hit was carried out in Beirut and is widely attributed to Israel.
If the assassination was done by Israel, it might be a message not just to Hamas and Hezbollah, but also to the United States, which is trying to retrain Israel on the northern front.
And finally: Mike and Gadi’s picks for the dumbest takes on the news.
The answer tp Gadi and Micheal’s headline question is “yes.” It is the desire of the Supremes and the Bar Association that appointed them to rule or ruin Israel. If it ever happens that the Israeli people decide they will no longer allow courts and prosecutor, “legal advisors,” etc. to rule them, they will decamp for the United States, Belgium or elsewhere, where they will hse their connections to obtain cushy jobs. They will never live in an Israel that they can no longer rule. They are not Israeli patriots. They are oligarchs who like oligarchs around the world, have no true loyalty to the people they rule.