Even Israel’s vehement critics might pause and marvel at what ordinary Israelis achieved this week. After weeks of mounting demonstrations against the government’s judicial-reform bills, hundreds of thousands took to the streets on Sunday night — proportionally, as if millions of Americans were on the march — when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he […]
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In proposing his judicial overhaul, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said he was restoring the balance of power between elected lawmakers and unelected judges. “It is not the end of democracy, it is the strengthening of democracy,” Mr. Netanyahu said last week, before a huge wave of protest and civil unrest forced him […]
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In a sign of easing tensions in Israel after the suspension of a contentious judicial overhaul, the United States ambassador to Israel said on Tuesday that President Biden would host the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington in the coming months. The announcement of such a meeting, long coveted by Mr. Netanyahu, came after […]
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Thank goodness that Israel’s civil society has forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pause, for now, his attempt to impose his control over Israel’s independent judiciary and gain a free hand to rule as he wishes. But this whole affair has exposed a new and troubling reality for the United States: For the first time, […]
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Little more than a year ago, it seemed that the political career of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, was all but over. Out of power, he was struggling to maintain relevance. State prosecutors had offered his lawyers a plea deal that would have let him avoid jail in his ongoing corruption trial, in exchange for […]
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WASHINGTON — In the 48 hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reluctantly delayed his effort to overhaul the Israeli judiciary, his government was bombarded by warnings from the Biden administration that he was imperiling Israel’s reputation as the true democracy at the heart of the Middle East. In a statement on Sunday night, soon after […]
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JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he was delaying his government’s campaign to exert greater control over the judiciary, backing off in the face of furious public protest that has plunged Israel into one of the deepest crises of its history. In recent weeks, Mr. Netanyahu had been unyielding in his […]
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Israel is in the throes of a grave political crisis that has ballooned in recent days to envelop crucial components of society: the military, universities and trade unions. For weeks, protesters have taken to the streets to oppose the government’s plan to overhaul judicial rules. The discontent intensified on Sunday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu […]
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For the first time in American history, a hotly anticipated indictment of a former American president may actually be handed up. Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, seems set to bring charges related to Donald Trump’s allegedly paying off a porn star named Stormy Daniels to cover up their affair. There are, however, significant problems […]
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Israel’s attorney general issued a sharp rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, warning him that he had broken the law by announcing that he would become more personally involved in his government’s efforts to overhaul the judiciary. The attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, said Mr. Netanyahu’s announcement on Thursday night had breached a Supreme […]
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The Manhattan district attorney on Thursday responded to House Republicans who have scrutinized his office’s criminal investigation into Donald J. Trump, pushing back forcefully against what the office called an inappropriate attempt by Congress to impede a local prosecution. The office of the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, was responding to a Monday letter demanding […]
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As part of a recent “national day of resistance,” a group of army reservists wearing masks converged at the Jerusalem office of a think tank and blocked its front door with sandbags and coils of barbed wire. Outside, protesters led a noisy rally on the street, waving dozens of placards and sharing a microphone for […]
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Israel’s government announced on Monday that it would attempt to enact by early April the most contentious part of its effort to overhaul the country’s judiciary — a change to the way that judges are appointed — while postponing the implementation of other parts of the plan by at least a month. The planned change […]
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The four activists arrived stealthily just after dawn at the well-guarded home of the Israeli minister in a leafy residential street in Jerusalem. Dropping to the sidewalk, they handcuffed themselves to one another through sections of pipe, and to a nearby lamppost, for a “lock-on” protest in front of the front gate. The police showed […]
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On the streets of Israel and in the corridors of power, a standoff over the government’s plan to take greater control over the country’s courts was as heated as ever on Thursday. Protesters opposed to plans by the government to overhaul the judiciary clashed with police in Tel Aviv on Thursday and also scuffled with counter-demonstrators, […]
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The president of Israel presented a compromise proposal on Wednesday for softening a government plan to drastically overhaul the country’s judiciary — a plan that critics say would destroy the country’s liberal democratic system and that has sent hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets in recent weeks. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected […]
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The Washington Post earlier reported on the Friday call and upcoming hearing. In asking the lawyers to keep quiet about the hearing, the judge did not issue a gag order, which would bar the participants on the call from sharing the information. Rather, he asked them to keep the information secret “as a courtesy.” He […]
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When Israeli lawmakers passed a law in 1992 that would give judges the power to block future legislation, an argument broke out on the floor of Parliament that foreshadowed the fight over the judiciary that is engulfing Israel today. “You are subjecting Parliament to the Supreme Court,” declared Michael Eitan, a lawmaker and a critic […]
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A new wave of mass demonstrations against a government plan to limit judicial independence swept across Israel on Thursday, with protesters restricting road access to the country’s main airport hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to fly to Italy later in the day. Thousands of demonstrators, some of them in a convoy of […]
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While the mediation remains far from success, its existence, nevertheless, adds nuance to an otherwise toxic and emotional national discourse that many fear could devolve into political violence or even civil war. The government’s supporters and opponents have accused each other of attempting a coup, amid fears on both sides that the future of Israel’s […]
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A plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to severely curtail the powers of Israel’s Supreme Court has prompted weeks of demonstrations, rattled the country’s technology sector and raised fears of political violence. Now, protests are emerging even within the nation’s military. Hundreds of soldiers in the military reserves either have signed letters expressing a reluctance […]
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For years, budding Israeli tech executives have asked Yanki Margalit, a veteran entrepreneur, where they should start their fledgling companies. For years, he’s offered the same advice: Here, in Israel, where software engineers are plentiful, international investors are eager and friends and family live. But as Mr. Margalit prepares a new venture of his own, […]
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JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi’s struggling capital has been a favored target of Republican leaders since the G.O.P. took total control of the state a decade ago. But perhaps none of the slings and arrows flung at Jackson has provoked as much outrage as the one the state House of Representatives loosed earlier this month. Legislators […]
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“There is no dialogue here. It’s a trap,” Merav Michaeli, leader of the center-left Labor Party, said on Monday, urging other opposition leaders to refuse to negotiate once the bills have passed the initial vote. “There is nobody to talk to. There is no good will about talks, no good faith,” she added. Many Israelis, […]
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On Thursday, after a lengthy criminal investigation by a Georgia special grand jury into allegations of election interference by Donald J. Trump and his allies, a judge released excerpts from a report drafted by the panel. The grand jury’s recommendations were redacted, and little new information was released, but a close reading, together with earlier […]
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Judge Kaplan noted that the hearing was not called to consider bail revocation, “but it could get there, conceivably.” A lawyer for Mr. Bankman-Fried, Mark S. Cohen, called the government’s proposal “draconian,” noting that it would prevent his client from doing research or viewing evidence. He also denied that Mr. Bankman-Fried had committed any wrongdoing […]
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ALBANY, N.Y. — The State Senate’s extraordinary rejection of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s nominee to head New York’s highest court on Wednesday has placed the state’s leaders in uncharted territory, clouding Ms. Hochul’s first full term in power. The uncertainty stemmed from the unprecedented rejection; the Senate’s vote against Justice Hector D. LaSalle to lead the […]
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The fight over Justice LaSalle has devolved into the most contentious battle in recent memory over a nominee for chief judge, who besides sitting on the Court of Appeals is also tasked with overseeing the state’s complex court system, which has thousands of judges and staff. The governor in December selected Justice LaSalle, who would […]
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Last February, Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, abruptly decided to block a nomination for a federal judgeship, though Mr. Johnson actually recommended the nominee just eight months before. Why the reversal? It was never very clear. Mr. Johnson said it was because the candidate, Judge William Pocan of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, didn’t […]
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