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Israel’s Judicial Overhaul Plan Ignites Debate Among American Jews


WASHINGTON — An attempt by the Israeli government to undermine the country’s judicial system, which critics call a threat to the nation’s democratic foundation, is sparking an outcry from all over the world. often from American Jewish leaders and organizations, including those that generally avoid commenting on internal Israeli politics.

The alarm within the United States reflects growing concern among prominent Jewish religious and political figures — not only about the content of the proposal but also about its potential impact on public relations. the US-Israeli relationship at a time when polls show Israel is losing support among nations. younger Americans as its politics lean to the right.

The reaction, from offices in Washington to neighboring synagogues and protests in several American cities, has also increased public pressure on President Biden, who has called the protection of Defending democracy abroad is one of our top priorities. The Biden administration has not publicly criticized the plan, instead broadly encouraging democratic values ​​and consensus.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal would, among other things, allow the Israeli Parliament to overturn Supreme Court decisions by a one-vote majority, while also giving the government the power to appoint judges freely. effective. For government advocates, the changes the government is pushing through Parliament are a way to limit the influence of unelected judges.

But critics say the overhaul will remove one of the few checks for excessive government infractions and protect Mr. Netanyahu from numerous corruption charges. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets, accusing Mr. Netanyahu of an unprecedented power game in a country hailed as a thriving democracy in the Middle East.

In the United States, criticism has been largely divided along political lines, with Democrats and progressives much more willing to speak up than conservatives. But concerns are increasingly coming from moderate and nonpartisan political groups that often shy away from divisive debates over Israel.

More than 80 House Democrats signed a letter they plan to send to Mr Biden on Thursday urging him to “use all diplomatic tools available to prevent the current government of Israel from doing so.” further damage the nation’s democratic institutions”. Activists in Washington are also planning to protest next week’s speech by Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, a major advocate for judicial change who has recently drawn international condemnation. for saying that a Palestinian village should be “obliterated”.

In Los Angeles last month, Rabbi Sharon Brous gave a presentation titled “Tears of Zion,” in which she urged her congregation not to “sleep in a revolution” and challenged “regime” nationalist, illiberal” Netanyahu. In New York City, former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a longtime defender of Israeli policies, wrote Guest post March 5 In The New York Times, Mr. Netanyahu was “making a disaster” with a blow that could threaten security, the economy and “the very democracy on which the country is built.”

Last month, the Jewish Federation of North America, a huge charity that raises and spends $3 billion annually, and usually has no position on Israeli politics, sent an open letter to Mr. Israel’s parliamentary opposition leader, Yair Lapid, opposed the idea of ​​judicial rejection and endorsed Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, for compromise and consensus.

“We recognize that any system of checks and balances will be different from those in our country, but such a drastic change to Israel’s governance system would have far-reaching consequences. widespread in North America, both in the Jewish community and more broadly. society,” warning letter.

Mr. Netanyahu and his defenders – including some in the US – say the proposed changes are warranted by what they call a judicial overreaction driven by bureaucratic elites. There are no selective elections and Americans should not try to influence Israeli politics.

“The Supreme Court is the only power under which those on the left of the center have to overturn center or center rulings,” said Morton Klein, president of the nonprofit advocacy group Zionist Foundation of America. . Klein said that American Jews are “free” and less religious “are shouted: ‘This is a disaster! This is the end of democracy!’ Ridiculous.”

However, some observers say that Jewish leaders and organizations that were once reluctant to criticize Israeli policies appear to be more willing to speak out.

“This crisis is affecting Jews in America in a way that is different from previous crises, which have been largely,” said Halie Soifer, executive director of the American Council of Jewish Liberal Democrats. focus on security issues. “This is a crisis of governance and democracy, which we have experienced here in the United States.”

More than half of Jews in the United States identify as Reform or Conservative, branches that tend to be less religiously observant and less attached to Israel.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the New York-based Coalition for Reform Judaism, described the Supreme Court as a “backstop” protecting the rights of minorities in Israel, including LGBTQ people. and Reform Jews, who say they are being discriminated against from the right. political wing. Many Israeli Arabs also fear losing protection under the planned overhaul.


How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times employees can vote, they are not allowed to support or campaign for political candidates or causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies to support a movement or raise money or raise money for any political candidate or electoral cause.

Rabbi Jacobs said: “The Supreme Court is the most important defender of civil and human rights.

In an interview this week, Rabbi Brous said that many American Jews are interested in Anti-Semitism on the rise and pressure from right-wing Jewish American interests can be discouraging and punish the criticism of the public of Israel. For decades, she said, Jewish leaders in America have been “guided more by that fear and feeling of vulnerability than by a real moral obligation to speak up.”

Today, however, their ranks include some of the nation’s top anti-Semitism watchdogs, including Abraham Foxman, the former national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who told The Jerusalem Post in December that “if Israel is no longer an open democracy, I will not be able to support it.”

“Traditionally, these differences are communicated privately,” said Jonathan Kessler, founder of Heart of a Nation, a Florida-based group that works towards reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. . “There seems to be a tendency to communicate these things openly.”

Rabbi Brous, who has close family ties to Israel, spent Sunday at a rally in Los Angeles organized by Can not usean organization founded in 2020 by Israeli citizens living in the San Francisco area who are disturbed by the right-wing shift in their homeland..

Even during the storm, some of America’s most prominent Jewish leaders refused to criticize Mr. Netanyahu’s new ultra-nationalist ruling coalition.

William Daroff, executive director of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations of America, wrote last week in The Jerusalem Post that his team was “worried about the tone of the argument and the lack of respect,” without blaming specific actors. He also expressed concern that “Israel’s enemies are numerous, arming themselves in the face of all criticism and rejoicing over our public disagreements.”

The US Israel Public Affairs Committee, a Washington-based organization that advocates the US government’s pro-Israel policies, also declined to comment on the nature of the matter, saying it is focused on security. Israel’s security against threats from enemies such as Iran. Marshall Wittmann, a spokesman for AIPAC, said the “hot debate” taking place in Israel “reflects the strong democracy of the Jewish state”.

It is unclear whether the current uproar can shake the Biden administration.

When Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visited Jerusalem in January, he spoke generally about democratic values ​​shared between the United States and Israel and the importance of governing “by consensus.”

Even those words have been denounced by some hardliners in Mr. Netanyahu’s government as unacceptable US interference in Israeli politics.

Some of Netanyahu’s defenders say it’s best for Washington to keep quiet on the issue.

Matt said: “Just as it is inappropriate for a foreign country to tell the US Senate whether Supreme Court justices can be dialysis, so judicial reform is a matter of the sovereignty of the United States. Israel, should not be subject to the whims and whims of the American Jewish community.” Brooks, executive director of the Washington-based Republican Jewish Coalition.

“The agenda is to undermine the current government,” said Irving Lebovics, co-chair of Am Echad, an Orthodox Jewish organization that he says is “not opposed” to the proposed changes. He said the protests were mainly driven by secular Jews, who he called worried about changing demographics in an increasingly religiously conservative Israel.

A key element missing from the debate, some progressives say, is the status of the Palestinians, who many experts fear could spark another insurgency amid rising violence. in Israel and the West Bank.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the Washington-based liberal lobby group J Street, which strongly advocates a peace agreement with the Palestinians, argued that the judicial overhaul plan was motivated by the desire to ” bypass the court” of the right. the wing’s goal was to annex and control Palestinian territories, an element that critics should have made clear.

A Palestinian scholar and activist, Noura Erakat, an associate professor at Rutgers University, said she welcomes the debate as a “fulcrum in US allegiance to Israel”, which could lead to policies more favorable to the Palestinians. But she said the discussion ignored the idea that Palestinians have long been deprived of true democracy.

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