A blow against Israel’s Supreme Court plunges the country into crisis

livemint.com:

far-right coalition led by the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. The law all but eliminates the court’s ability to overturn government decisions on the grounds of “reasonableness". Since the coalition presented its plans nearly eight months ago, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in protest.

Mr Netanyahu’s allies claim that in recent decades the Supreme Court has been overly interventionist and that its powers should be curbed. Opponents of the reforms argue that they will undermine Israeli democracy and risk introducing majoritarian rule. The government has been unmoved.

Thousands of reserve officers in Israel’s armed forces have announced that they will no longer turn up for their voluntary service, but before the vote Mr Netanyahu refused to meet with the army’s chief of staff, who wanted to warn him of the security implications of the dispute. The prime minister has also brushed-off a rare public warning from Israel’s closest ally: President Joe Biden called on the government to postpone the vote and try to reach a compromise with the opposition. The White House described the result as “unfortunate".

After attempts to pass the full raft of his government’s legal reforms stalled in the face of widespread opposition, Mr Netanyahu repeatedly promised that he would try to pursue the constitutional changes through consensus. That came to nothing. Under pressure from the radical elements in his coalition, he abandoned efforts to find any kind of compromise.