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Advocates for Netanyahu’s judicial reforms are increasingly pressing their case in English
(JTA) — The video gives a “Schoolhouse Rock” vibe: Cartoon figures climb the names of the three branches of the U.S. government — “legislature” at the base, “judiciary” at the top and “executive” sandwiched in the middle — as part of a lesson on governance.
But while the video is in English, the government it refers to is not American but Israeli. And the video was produced not by an educational television company but by the Kohelet Policy Forum, a think tank that is widely understood to have influenced the rightward shift within Israeli politics.
The video’s release on Twitter Wednesday appears to be part of a wave of efforts to sell one particularly controversial aspect of that shift — proposed reforms to Israel’s judiciary — to skeptical English speakers. While the many critics of the proposed changes say they would bring Israel out of line with other democracies, all of the English-language efforts press the case that the opposite is true.
“The reforms in progress will address the anomalies of the Israeli system and bring Israel just a few steps closer to the rest of the Western democracies,” concludes the Kohelet Forum video, which features a caped jurist superhero.
Israel’s judicial reform: strengthening democracy pic.twitter.com/k4rL88NlaU
— פורום קהלת Kohelet (@KoheletForum) January 25, 2023
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has forcefully defended the proposed changes, which include allowing the parliament to overrule the Supreme Court and would have the added benefit of insulating himself from his ongoing corruption prosecution. But he appears to have underestimated opposition to the reforms, which has come not just from liberal Israelis and American Jews but from traditionally nonpartisan think tanks, legal scholars and even right-leaning Americans.
Unlike some of the other changes called for by members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, which includes far-right extremists and religious parties, the judicial changes are raising questions about core values held by most pro-Israel American conservatives: that Israel is a democratic oasis in the Middle East and that business savvy is an Israeli strength. Foreign investors and international credit agencies have both signaled that if the reforms go through, they will downgrade their estimation of the country.
“The conservative right was with [Netanyahu] and now he seems to be riding the tiger of the radical right,” David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in December on the day the government was sworn in, before it had begun turning its ideas into policy proposals. “And I think that is bound to alienate the very people who counted on him being risk-averse and to focus on the economy.”
In a notable symbol of this shift, Bret Stephens, the New York Times columnist who has been a staunch defender of Netanyahu, publicly broke with him on Wednesday, writing that the judicial reforms convinced him that the prime minister had “moved along the current of illiberal democracy whose other champions include Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.” Meanwhile, Alan Dershowitz, the constitutional lawyer who is usually a stalwart supporter of Israel, has also criticized the reforms.
“It’s a high bar for conservatives in contemporary American politics to criticize Israel, but there have been some cracks,” said Scott Lasensky, who teaches on U.S.-Israel relations at the University of Maryland.
Whether the English-language defenses emanate from any kind of coordinated public relations strategy is unclear. But Lasensky said Netanyahu may feel that he needs to explain why he is dismantling the judiciary to American conservatives, who cherish a judicial system independent of the pressures of successive liberal Democratic administrations.
“American conservatives have a majority on their courts — they don’t want to change their courts,” he said.
It’s unlikely that the Kohelet video will reach an audience anywhere the size that Stephens has. But another defense of the judicial reforms released this week certainly can: that made by Ben Shapiro, the American Jewish right-wing pundit with more than 20 million followers across platforms, on his Daily Wire podcast, which says it has more than 1 million paid subscribers.
“They want the judges of the Supreme Court to be appointed by the prime minister and approved by the Knesset, which sounds like the system in the United States,” Shapiro said in the segment. “They want to ensure, because Israel does not have a constitution, that the Supreme Court will not be able to come up with a constitution in a move of judicial dictatorship. … It’s ridiculous.”
Netanyahu briefly shared a video of Shapiro’s comments on Twitter before his tweet was removed. The version that Netanyahu shared features Hebrew subtitles as well as a message from the person who made it suggesting that Shapiro — who spoke in Israel for the first time last summer — can convince Israelis and Americans alike: “Ben Shapiro supports the judicial reform and not just that he explains why. Watch and join in.”
In yet another English-language defense of the proposed judicial reforms, Tablet, the online Jewish magazine that is known for airing conservative and often inflammatory ideas, published an essay by Gadi Taub, a prominent Israeli conservative.
“The press has got it backwards. Yariv Levin, Netanyahu’s new justice minister, is not out to destroy democracy,” Taub wrote in the essay published Wednesday. “He is out to restore it.”
The English-language defenses are particularly notable given Netanyahu’s longtime boast that he does not care about winning over Americans to his domestic agenda. But Josh Block, a former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, said Netanyahu is interested in having Americans be convinced that he is driving changes, not the extremists with whom he is aligned in government.
“He clearly feels the need to try to reassure people across the political spectrum in the United States, that he’s in charge of his government,” said Block, who is now a fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. “That the decisions that will be made rest with him and not with people who are subordinate to him, who may have ideas that are anathema to some of us in the United States.”
Netanyahu may be sensitive to a major criticism of his immediate predecessors, Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid, who accused the current prime minister of alienating Israel’s most important ally, said a former senior U.S. official who dealt with Israel policy.
“It cuts against one of the arguments of the opposition that these reforms, or this plan, will weaken Israel’s standing in the community of democracies, including its relationship with the United States,” said the official, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly. “‘Well, look, there are Americans who are endorsing it and saying good things about it,’ Bibi can say.”
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Hormuz Standoff Continues as US-Iran Ceasefire Teeters
People walk past a mural depicting the late leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the late Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Prospects of a peace deal with Iran dwindled on Tuesday after Donald Trump said a ceasefire was “on life support” as Tehran rejected a US proposal to end the conflict and stuck to a list of demands the US president described as “garbage.”
Iran has called for an end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, where US ally Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists. Tehran also emphasized its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, demanded compensation for war damage, and an end to the US naval blockade, among other conditions.
Trump, who will discuss the war with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip to Beijing this week, said Iran‘s response threatened the status of a ceasefire announced on April 7.
“I would call it the weakest right now, after reading that piece of garbage they sent us. I didn’t even finish reading it,” Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to end the ceasefire, told reporters on Monday. “It’s on life support.”
OIL EXTENDS GAINS
The US had proposed an end to fighting before starting talks on more contentious issues, including Iran‘s nuclear program.
Brent crude oil futures extended gains, climbing to around $108 a barrel, as the deadlock left the Strait of Hormuz largely closed. Before the war began on Feb. 28, the narrow waterway carried a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, and has since become a central pressure point in the conflict.
US Central Command said the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln was in the Arabian Sea continuing to enforce the US blockade against Iran, having redirected 65 commercial vessels and disabled four.
The Pentagon put the cost of the war at $29 billion so far, an increase of $4 billion from an estimate provided late last month. An official told lawmakers the new cost included updated repair and replacement of equipment and operational costs.
The war also has driven a roughly 50% increase in gasoline prices across the US, where consumer prices rose at a brisk clip for a second straight month in April, resulting in the largest annual increase in inflation in nearly three years.
TRUMP’S TRIP TO CHINA
Surveys show the war is unpopular with US voters less than six months before nationwide elections that will determine whether Trump’s Republican Party retains control of Congress.
Two out of three Americans, including one in three Republicans and almost all Democrats, think Trump has not clearly explained why the country has gone to war, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday.
Trump is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday.
Trump wants China to convince Tehran to make a deal with Washington to end the conflict. China maintains ties with Iran and remains a major consumer of its oil exports. China’s foreign ministry has said the US blockade of the strait does not serve the common interest of the international community.
The US on Monday imposed new sanctions on individuals and companies it said were helping Iran ship oil to China, part of efforts to cut off funding for Tehran’s military and nuclear programs, while also warning banks about attempts to evade existing curbs.
IRANIAN OFFICIALS USE TOUGH RHETORIC
Iranian officials, meanwhile, issued statements attempting to show continued resolve in the face of US pressure.
A Fars news agency report cited Mohammad Akbarzadeh, deputy political director of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, as saying Iran had expanded its definition of the Strait of Hormuz into a “vast operational area” under a new plan.
There was no immediate reply from Iranian authorities to a request for comment on Akbarzadeh’s remarks, which defined the waterway as a zone stretching from the coast of the city of Jask in the east to Siri Island in the west.
In a post on X, parliamentary national security and foreign policy commission spokesperson Ebrahim Rezaei said Iran could enrich uranium up to 90% purity, a level considered weapons-grade, if the country is attacked once more.
Iran’s defense ministry spokesperson said any new attack by an enemy would be met with an immediate response, according to state media. In Tehran, the Guards held drills “centered on preparation to confront the enemy,” state TV reported.
TRICKLE OF SHIPPING THROUGH HORMUZ
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains at a trickle. Shipping data on Kpler and LSEG showed that three tankers laden with crude exited the waterway last week, with trackers switched off to avoid any Iranian attack.
In the Qatari capital Doha, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the strait should not be used as a “weapon.”
Lithuania said it could contribute minesweeping capabilities and resources for a potential mission to protect shipping in the strait. Britain said on Saturday it was deploying a warship to the Middle East in preparation for a potential multinational effort in the strait once conditions allow.
Kuwait summoned Iran’s ambassador and handed him a protest note over what it said was the infiltration of Bubiyan Island by armed members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and clashes with Kuwaiti armed forces, the foreign ministry said. There was no immediate reaction from Iran.
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New Israeli Law Sets Military Tribunal for Hamas Oct. 7 Terrorists
Hand prints and other markings made in the soot on a wall are seen, nearly a year since the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, in Kibbutz Beeri, southern Israel, Sept. 15, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s parliament passed a law late on Monday establishing a military tribunal to try hundreds of Palestinian terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, a step lawmakers said would help heal national trauma.
The surprise attack, led by elite “Nukhba” force fighters from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, was Israel’s deadliest single day and the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. At least 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in neighboring Gaza.
Israel has been holding an estimated 200-300 fighters – the precise number is classified – captured in Israel during the attack, who have not yet been charged.
The special military court established by the law, to be presided over by a three-judge panel in Jerusalem, could also try others captured later in Gaza and suspected of participating in the attack, or of having held or abused Israeli hostages.
The new law was backed by a wide majority 93 of the Knesset’s 120 lawmakers, in a rare show of Israeli political unity.
The terrorists burst through the Gaza border and rampaged through southern Israeli villages, army bases, roads, and a music festival. Besides the killings, the fighters also took 251 hostages back to Gaza.
NO TRIAL DATE
Lawmakers from both the governing coalition and the opposition authored the bill, meant to ensure all assailants are brought to justice under existing Israeli criminal statutes for what it describes as crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
Proceedings will be public, with major hearings broadcast live. While defendants will attend only key hearings in person and all others by video, surviving victims will be allowed in-person access, according to the new law.
Ya’ara Mordecai, an international law expert at Yale Law School, said the new law raised some concerns about due process, given the military court setting, as well as a risk of atrocity proceedings turning into politicized or symbolic “show trials.”
Knesset member Yulia Malinovsky, one of the bill’s authors, said that the legislation ensures a fair and lawful trial.
“They will be sentenced by Israel’s judges, not by the street or by what we all feel,” Malinovsky said before the vote. “At the end of the day, what makes us great is our spirit, our resilience, ability to cope and withstand this immense pain.”
OPTION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Israel’s penal code includes capital punishment for some of the charges which the terrorists are likely to face. If handed down, a death sentence would trigger an automatic appeal on behalf of the defendant, according to the new law.
The last person executed in Israel was Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Nazi Holocaust, hanged in 1962 after being captured in Argentina by Israeli agents. Military courts in the West Bank can sentence Palestinian convicts to death but have never done so.
A separate law passed by Israel in March making death by hanging a default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks drew criticism at home and abroad and is expected to be struck down by the Supreme Court.
HAMAS CONDEMNS NEW LAW
Hamas Gaza spokesperson Hazem Qassem said the new law “serves as a cover for the war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza.”
The International Criminal Court is probing Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war and has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders who have all since been killed by Israel.
Israel is also fighting a genocide case at the International Court of Justice. It rejects the allegations as politically motivated and has argued that its war is against Hamas, not the Palestinian people.
Israeli officials say the military has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
Another challenge for Israel has been Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
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Man Suspected of Plotting Violent Attack Had Sought to Target Louvre, Jewish Community, Officials Say
A man talks on the phone at the renovated Gallery of Five Continents (Galerie des Cinq Continents) in the Denon wing (Aile Denon) during a press preview at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, Dec. 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
A 27-year-old man suspected of plotting a violent attack and of planning to join Islamic State in Syria or Mozambique had sought to target a Parisian museum and the Jewish community, though no specific target was identified, a source close to the investigation said on Monday.
French newspaper Le Monde reported that the man, who was arrested on Thursday, had attempted to target the Louvre and the Jewish community in Paris’ 16th arrondissement.
Security gaps at the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, were spotlighted last October, when burglars made off with $102 million worth of jewels.
In France, as throughout Europe, antisemitic acts surged to record highs after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.